The Pompous Veratrum

Dr Pavankumar R Kollurkar

ABSTRACT
A veratrum personality is always described under the sub-heading’s egotism, dogmatism, braggart, boaster, pompous, haughty, which are quite characteristic to it. This article is an attempt to understand the nature and constitution of veratrum personality.

KEYWORDS
Veratrum, egotism, dogmatism, extravagant, haughty.

INTRODUCTION

• Veratrum Album, common name is “White” or “European Hellebore”, belongs to the natural order of the Liliaceae and is a member of the family of the Hellebore or Melanthiaceae.
• For the preparation of the homeopathic remedy, the tincture of the root-stocks, collected (in the Alps and Pyrenees) early in June before flowering, is used.
• Veratrum Album is easily recognized by its pronounced mental-emotional state or intense physical symptoms.
• Those who do well with Veratrum are very ambitious, haughty, and generally unconcerned about the effect of their behaviors and attitude on others.
• Their mental restlessness can lead to mania or delusions of grandeur.
• On the physical level, Veratrum is a remedy for severe or simultaneous vomiting and diarrhea, cramps and spasms, profuse cold sweat, and weakness or collapse. Historically, it was used for cholera as a treatment or preventative when those symptoms were present. With or without physical symptoms, those needing Veratrum may complain about chilliness and crave sour flavors, salty things, cold drinks or ice.
• Children needing Veratrum tend to be restless, precocious, curious or questioning. Easy frustration leads to repetitive behaviors such as nail-biting, stacking, cutting or tearing, and disobedience or behavioral problems with a lack of remorse.

PHYSICAL APPEARANCE

• Veratrum person tends to have an ANGULAR FACE, in keeping with his rigid mentality
• Nose is usually strong and straight – reflection of determination
• Eyes – tends to look intense or manic
• Body – TAUT AND WIRY
• A good example of a veratrum appearance is that of DAVID KORESH THE LATE FANATICAL PREACHER who died along with many of his followers in Waco, Texas when he ordered them to set a fire to the compound.

THEME

• Conflict Between Sex and Religion
• Sensuality and Sexuality.
• Moral and Immoral.
• Divine and Evil.
• Pure and Impure.

ADAPTABILITY

• Extremes of life children and old people.
• Persons who are habitually cold and deficient in vital reaction.
• Young people of a nervous sanguine temperament.
• Pale face, sunken expression, cold sweat, icy cold body.
• Adapted to diseases with rapid sinking of the vital forces; complete prostration; collapse.

EVOLUTION OF VERATRUM PERSONALITY

• Somebody in his earlier generations has lost his social position, creating the social position.
• This state has been subsequently transmitted as a root in to this patient

We can explain through the different stages of life as follows:

MOTHERS STAGE DURING PREGNANCY:

MORTIFICATION, HUMILIATION AND SCORN:

• The mother during her pregnancy feels neglected.
• She is not allowed to fulfil her ambition or is refrained from doing the things she desires.

DECEPTION:

• She has no warm affections from her husband.

DISAPPOINTMENT:

• I have been treated not in the way as I should have been
• My importance is not been there in my family.

CHILD:

INQUISITIVENESS:

• Children needing veratrum tend to be very intelligent, curious.
• They are very much curious to touch everything & want to know about it.
• In consulting room during history taking these children are restless, never sit at one place.

DEMANDS ATTENTION:

• They want that parents should be always with them.
• They do not like to remain alone.
• Cannot be left alone; yet persistently refuse to talk.

EGOISTIC: They believe in lots of formalities and will demand lots attention wherever they go.

VERATRUM ALBUM PERSONALITY CAN BE EXPLAINED UNDER EMOTIONS, WILL AND INTELLECT:

EMOTIONS:

1 AMBITION – AMBITIOUS FOR FAME: SOCIAL POSITION

• In veratrum it is noticeable that its main feeling is of being excluded, plus the fear of losing social position.
• He is thrown out of his job, his kingdom. He is out, he is desperate and, in a panic, so he tries to hold what has been lost.
• We see in belladonna the fear of being attacked, in stramonium the threat of being alone in the wilderness and in Hyoscyamus the threat of being deserted by his partner. That is why it is said that veratrum has all these three remedies in it.

THE EXTRAVAGANT OLD MAN:

• I was an employee of an old man who was going to retire soon. Fearing that the retirement would be a blow to his social position, he wanted to arrange a huge extravaganza to prove that he was still important.
• So, he booked a huge football stadium for his birthday party and filled it up with his guests.
• We the employee were to march in the stadium with the stilts on our shoes to exaggerate our heights and at the same time play music. Our boss, the old man, would follow us in the stadium
• This dream typifies the veratrum feeling. This man behaves as if he is reacting to a loss of social position.
• He is like a king who suddenly became a pauper.
• If he is to “survive” he has to tell lies and make a show of wealth.
• He needs to create about him an aura of grandeur.
• In my experience I have seen that veratrum people can use any means in order to make QUICK BUCK OR show their importance
• Show of wealth and importance are prominent features seen in Veratrum and using these he tries to make up this “lost social position

HOW THEY REACH THEIR GOAL?

Ambition much – For every possible means employed

1. GAMBLING
2. DECEITFUL: Great liars – never mind for it
3. Boasting about themselves
4. They will not share their belongings to their closed ones
5. They know how to take from others in an easy way
6. Revealing others secrets
7. GOSSIPING

POMPOUS VERATRUM

SHOWY ENVANGELIST:

• extravagance and his ability to lie without any hesitation
• wants to possess expensive clothing’s and thing Desires luxurious life, brags about it to show off that others consider him rich

BOASTER, BRAGGART, EXTRAVAGANCE:

• LIAR, lies, never speaks the truth
• They are big boasters.
• Always talking about themselves and showing off their things to friends as if they are very rich e.g., purchase new ornaments or mobiles etc.
• Mind – boaster rich wishes to be considered as
• Talks with the excessive pride and satisfaction about ones achievements, possessions or abilities.
• Here the person himself is a source of pride. Feels satisfied in exaggerating the self.

VANITY:

• The process of SELF ADMIRATION & GLORIFICATION through speech and manner.
• People must ADMIRE ME
• They love to talk about themselves and show off themselves.
• They desire to be rich. In kitty parties these women show off their new ornaments or sarees or their new car and praise themselves.
• They May appear to be humble or disinterested in their self-image, but in reality, they care very much, and they have the desire to be exceptional, to be unique, to be something “out of the ordinary”
• As long as you praise them, they seem to take no notice though internally they crave such attention, AS SOON AS YOU CRITICIZE THEM, THEY TAKE IT IN BAD PART.

SQUANDERING:

• squanders money, shows of wealth and importance,
• Spends a lot on fancy and useless things

MISCHIEVIOUS:

• Mischievous for fun
• Intentions are clear
• Not to hurt
• Mischievous- CRUEL (Anac)– harming animals, troubling animals.

AFFECTATION:

• Artificial behavior to impress upon somebody.
• AFFTECTATION – GESTURES AND ACTS IN
• AFFTECTATION – WORDS IN

SEXUAL SPHERE:

LIBERTINISM: IN FEMALE

• Libertinism is an extreme form of hedonism.
• Libertine is someone who lives life unencumbered by morals.
• Veratrum female says that there is “MORE TO DO WITH SEX”
• For veratrum female it is a Sexual freedom

NYMPHOMANIA:

• During menses with loquacity
• Kisses everyone before menses

ADULTEROUS MALE:

• Legally married men having illegal affairs
• Satyriasis
• The married man who has extra marital affair by speaking and giving a false image about his traumatic married life to innocent women
• Lewdness obscene man searching for young girls
• Lewd talks and sings
• Amorous
• Shameless wants to be naked

INSOLENCE:

• Not respecting a person who deserves respect
• Lack reverence

HARD-HEARTED PERSON:

Inhuman nature – indifference unfeeling

REMORSE AND RELIGIOUS:

• Feeling bad guilty for what already done
• Reproach
• Religious

WILL

EGOTISM AND DOGMATISM:

EGOTISM:

• The main idea of egotism is a person’s sense of self-esteem or self-importance.
• In psychoanalysis, ego is the part of the mind that mediates between conscious and the unconscious and is responsible for reality testing and a sense of personal identity.
• In veratrum personality, they believe themselves to be superior to those around them.
• They believe themselves to be the only normal and others are abnormal.
• They speak inappropriately loudly that is arrogance with which they express their opinions.
• They are bossy people always arguing with other people for no matter little things.
• Because of their attitude they are intolerant and quite unable to maintain reasonable relations with others

DOGMATISM:

• veratrum mind seems to be single tracked: dogmatic-dictatorial-haughty.
• one can’t help but thinking veratrum is living in his own little dream world, where all the rules are laid out, his picture of reality clearly drawn and then as soon as he disturbed by something that might prove him wrong, he is unable to consider a second point of view.
• RARE CONSTITUTIONAL TYPE
• Corresponds to people who live on the verge of insanity.
• Closely related to stramonium and syphilinum
• At the time of consultation, they are QUITE STABLE EMOTIONALLY BUT DO SEEM ODD
• 1ST Obvious abnormality – SPEECH
• Being psychologically rigid is reflected in his speech.
• Either very loud speech or a tense STOCCATO fashion like a robot.

Secondly,

• THEY SPEAK IN A PUSHY, OVER CONFIDENT MANNER.
• Etiquette wise, will be very poor.
• Might laugh a bit loud or even start speaking of his complaints without the physician asking anything. (RUBRIC-RUDENESS)

Thirdly,

They mostly appear to be ARROGANT AND HAVING THEIR OWN DOGMATISM

RIGID

• one of the characteristics of veratrum album is ‘rigidity’. The veratrum personality is quite stiff in thinking and cannot tolerate contradiction at all.
• Rigidity is reflected in his voice
• Inappropriately loud voice or tense staccato fashion like robot in relatively healthy persons, because in disease, the voice of veratrum is often weak and feeble.
• Most rigid of all types mentally
• OVERCONFIDENT manner in which he speaks
• RUDENESS
• ABUSIVE, insulting
• Calling names and scolding
• MORALS, moral feeling want of

INSOLENT AND RUDE

• “Whenever you have a mania remedy that is insulting personally a person, that should be the red flag for Veratrum.
• While Veratrum is often related to a sense of religious superiority or prophetic superiority, they know what is best in terms of moral or in terms of religion or how to live.
• It is one of the remedies that have a tendency to smile, they smile for no reason, not because you are talking to them, it is a kind of malicious smile, sadistic smile. They think of malicious thoughts and it makes them smile.”

CENSORIOUS

• “Disposed to talk about faults of others, or silence; but if irritated, scolding and calling names.” [Herring]

INTELLECT

INQUISITIVENESS:

WITTY:

• Presence of mind
• Humor
• Quick spontaneous
• Clever

VIOLENT ANGER:

• The aggressive mental state is not the most marked one in veratrum and it always needs a trigger to bring this side out in the patient.
• As long as the patients internal balance is kept, as long nothing breaks his routine and as long no pain triggers upset him, the patient will remain in a quiet, depressed state, but as soon as his optimal conditions gets disturbed, he might become quite lively, aggressive and active.
• The mental symptoms are marked by violence and destructiveness: he wants to destroy, to tear something; he tears the clothes from his body.
• When not occupied with this he was tearing his clothes, or praying for hours on his knees and so loud that he could be heard blocks away.
• A cooper who was suffering from the veratrum insanity would pileup chairs on top of another: when asked what he was doing, he replied that he was piling up staves.
• When contradicted they shout and curse.
• They break the things.
• In extreme stages, a person can even CUT AND MUTILATE OTHER

FEAR:

• Fear is not a prominent symptom of veratrum; however, they do have fears that revolve around loss of social position, wealth and status, as well as fears that you might expect from a poison.
• These fears can become so overwhelming that the patient reacts irrationally.
• Looking closer at the possible mental causes of veratrum and its fears, it becomes clear that the person takes himself very seriously.
• He will be just fine as long as everything is just the way he needs it to be,

DELUSIONS:

• Delusion of having a cancer
• He is under powerful influence
• Communicating with God
• He is a Christ
• Messenger from God
• Delusion that he committed a crime
• He is persecuted
• Delusion he is crime
• Delusion he is murdered
• Delusion of grandeur
• Delusion of wealth
• Delusion of squandering money
• Delusion – being abroad
• Delusion- world is on fire

MANIA

VIOELNT MANIA:

The restlessness can be a foreboding of a true manic state which the veratrum patient goes through.

• Veratrum is very restless type at the best of times.
• Even outside of manic episodes he is liable to have some difficulty sitting still for long.
• One patient said that he often paced up and down at home in the evening and when this pacing becomes more frantic his wife knew he was heading for another manic attack – kent- restlessness anxious.

EROTIC MANIA:

• Lewd, lascivious talk.
• women when they suffer from abnormal mental impressions arising from disturbance in the sexual sphere.
• She rushes about the room endeavoring to kiss everyone.

MANIC PHASE PROMINENT THAN THE DEPRESSIVE PHASE

DEPPRESSIVE PSYCHOSIS AND RELIGIOSITY:

• BROODING DESPAIR:
• The depressed veratrum will sit silently for hours thinking about how WRETCHED he feels and imagining that he never feels any better.
• Kent- despair of his recovery
• At this phase he is liable to be more anxious than usual, especially when alone and he may contemplate suicide as a way out of his misery.
• Runs around the room HOWLING ANS SCREAMING and sits BROODING, WAILING AND WEEPING.
• ALTERNATE STATES OF BROODING, SCREEMING AND SCREECHING.

RELIGIOUS INSANITY:

• Like most psychotic remedies, veratrum too has a strongly religious attitude.
• Because of his rigid mind, the veratrum patient is prone to religious fanaticism and might not accept any form of religion other than his own and he might try to “save the multitudes”
• Confusion about identity
• He thinks he is Christ /john the Baptist
• Chosen person sent to save the world
• Full of religious righteousness.
• Depressed state/melancholic state.
• Brood or sulk, despairing over his own state & over state of world.
• Despair over his salvation

RELIGIOUS FANATICISM:

• It involves the THREAT OF DAMNATION AND THE POSSIBILITY OF REDEMPTION
• He may be obsessed with the thought that he is damned (Kent- anxiety about salvation) and try hard to be pious and make amends for his sins (Kent – praying black type).
• Or he may adopt and ENVANGELISTS ROLE and try to convince others that they must repent and turn to the lord. (Kent- exhorts to repent, preaches)
• Religiosity may be fueled and veratrum may stand on street corners and preach excitedly at passersby.
• Sits in a stupid manner, notices nothing.

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Dr Pavankumar R Kollurkar
PG Scholar, Department Of Materia Medica
Father Muller Homoeopathic Medical College,Deralakatte, Mangalore -575018
Under The Guidance Of Dr. Srinath Rao C
Professor, Department Of Homoeopathic Materia Medica