Dr Shilpa R Metran
Abstract
Lycopodium personality is one of the most commonly seen personalities in today’s world. From the very young lycopodium to an adult lycopodium there are various transitions and variations which makes us hard to find these constitutions hence I have tried to outline common essence of the emotions and reactions of a lycopodium individual through his lifetime to help budding homoeopaths understand the constitution.
Keywords – Lycopodium, Homoeopathy, constitutional remedy, evolution, adaptability, fear, anxiety, miser.
Abbreviations – Lyco (Lycopodium)
Man has evolved physically, mentally and emotionally over the years. Change has been the only constant factor over the years. Many have learned the art of adaptability to these changes , well, a few still fear with the thought of something new , something different.
These constitutions are mostly trying to adapt to something new with his own struggle and succeeding it in his own way. He has a big ego with deep rooted fear of incompetence and fear of losing his dignity. Hence he tries his best to adapt to these changes and thus giving us homoeopaths our picture of Lycopodium.
Lycopodium childhood – needy child
Lycopodium is mostly considered as a man who has grown up in a house very young with a strong , intelligent older sibling who is good at studies, athletics and at everything, making our poor Lyco feel like he is never going to be capable enough to do as good as his sibling. That person always compares himself to someone or someone else compares him with someone or he compares himself with others. This comparison syndrome leads to change of functions to compensate for that.
This self doubt of inadequacy does not stop our dear lyco to accept defeat, hence he starts attending school regularly, sits at the first bench and does all his homework with much effort. On the next day when questioned in school, even though his answer is right, he is unable to answer. He stands there with a frown and fear on his face thinking what if he is wrong, what if he fails and what if everyone laughs at him. There is fear of incapability, self doubt, fear of losing his dignity and deep inside there is inadequacy ruling over him at all times.
Over the years he develops the art of covering this fear, anxiety with a bluff of capability; Excellency to compensate the inner feeling of inferiority. He tells outrageous exaggerated lies to cover his true inner state- bravado.
All his childhood he has fear of most things like dark, being alone, failure, strangers , new places , new situations, making him very much dependent on his parents, His only trusted accompany who is going to protect him from all these fearful shadows. Hence our Lyco becomes a fearful needy child who is always behind his mother holding the end of her saree. Does not answer to strangers, frowns at them with much fear, he does not trust them. Anything new is considered as a threat to him. But once the situation or the person is familiar to him he gets adjusted to it. But this fear to anything new, fear of change deep roots in him all his life.
I once had a patient who always had gastric troubles, anything little he ate turned into gas causing bloating. On one such consultation I asked him what was troubling him, he said he was not happy in his work place but he was scared to leave the job because if he changed it would take months together for him to adjust to the new environment, new people hence this dilemma made him irritable, moody and the fear somaticized as pain and bloating of abdomen. When I further questioned him he also explained he had a pressure from the family to meet a girl and settle, the thought of living with someone new and the responsibility of marriage made him very anxious and irritable. With this and his strong craving for sweets, irritable constitution and past history of recurrent renal calculi I gave him Lycopodium 1M, with pinch of encouragement. His gastric complaints subsided and in three months he said he is doing better mentally and emotionally.
Fear somatization
This is another feature of lycopodium his deep rooted fear of incompetence and his bravado in order to bloat his ego, somaticizes into bloating of abdomen, with a weak digestion or into arthritis as inflammation increases, so too do the fears and irritability.
Lycopodium teenager – love for power
Yes, like I was saying these fearful, irritable lycopodium children become needy and dependent on the parents due to their multiple fears, making the parent go easy on him. They do not scold him or punish him, they become protective and submissive as they do not want to hurt the feelings of this weak needy boy who is much attached to them. This makes the Lyco boy think he is in power, he can control his parents and they must obey him as his will. If they were to disobey him or try to punish him our little tyrant would cause a scene, cry emotionally blackmail the parents and make things go according his way.
Now, as the years passes by, our dear Lyco has grown up into a adolescent who has fear and self doubt covered with layers of concocted confidence. He is rude and is a bully to people who are weaker than him but his obedient and yielding to people stronger than him. He climbs the ladder with this art of selective dictatorship over the years. He knows if he says the right things; to the right people; in the right way even if he is not capable of doing it, he can make people believe he can get things done.
One constant thing our lyco needs in unconditional love. He wants to only be around family, the ones who can be controlled and will not put up a fuss. Have only people around them whom he can control .External power only; internally they still feel weak. Kent describes it as love of power. Headstrong and cranky who controls everybody at home. They grow irritable if not obeyed. He yells, screams, or acts badly; he can manipulate this loving person to do anything he wishes. He becomes critical and fault finding. Yet, he expects the same humongous love from his family. Domineering yet needy.
Lycopodium husband- Dictator
One of the weaknesses of our lycopodium is a pretty woman; he cannot resist young lass with a pretty smile. He goes beyond his ways to try and impress her with his bravado. But when it comes to commitment and settling for the long run, his fear starts appearing. He comes irritable, possessive, controlling and moody. The idea of taking responsibility of another person and the changes he will have to make scares the lycopodium. But once he settles, he takes his commitment seriously and does not back out.
But as a husband he is dominant and controlling. Everybody at home should listen to what he says, obey him and worship him. His wife and children fear him and are suffocated by him. This is caused due to irritability he faces in his work place which cannot be showed there to his superiors. All the anger and frustration is poured onto his poor family.
Lycopodium wives
Like the male lyco, female Lycopodiums are also dominant and controlling as well, their husbands and children loath them but they are not as irritable as lyco men and show less bravado.
Lycopodium adulthood- Wiser miser
As the person ages, lycopodium becomes wiser, confident and calmer. He reflects on self and might regret few of his behaviors like bravado or his dictatorship. He tries to become a better person as he ages. But one thing that remains constant through lycopodiums lives is his parsimony. He is a miser always trying to save pennies and losing dollars. He tries repairing the plumbing of his house or the mixer grinder even if he is not qualified for it. He buys things on discount and walks miles in order to save money on taxi.
Conclusion
By going through the evolution of lycopodium we understand that all of us have a lot of similarities to these traits. Also we realize most men surrounded by us are partial Lycopodiums or a complete one, who goes through a lot of fears and insecurities, strives and succeeds in life. Presentation of these fears and insecurities and the bluff could vary but the inner essence remains the same. It is us, Homoeopaths duty is to pick these striking traits in lycopodium personalities and treat them rightly when needed.
Bibliography
- The homoeopathic treatment of children pediatric comstitutional types – Paul Herscu
- Mr Lycopodium – Prof. Dr. Farokh J. Master
- Portraits of Homoeopathic Medicines – Catherine R. Coulter
- Homoepathic Psychology – Philip M. Bailey
- Essence of Materia medica – George Vithoulkas
- Lectures on Homoeopathic Materia medica – J. T. Kent
Dr. Shilpa R Metran BHMS,
MD Scholar, Department of homoeopathic Materia Medica,
Father Muller Homoeopathic Medical college, Karnataka.
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