Understanding Causticum

Dr. Claudio C. Araujo, M.D., F.F. Hom. (Lon.) et al.

What is Causticum’s first perception of reality? 

From his childhood symptoms we can assume that he is - generally afraid and sensitive - since his first years. He is anxious and afraid to go to sleep. He is careful when starts to walk. He is restless and whines at every situation.

The child whines about every trifle, 

Anxiety in the evening before going to sleep; the boy could not fall asleep because he constantly thought of anxious things; one could with difficulty induce him to go to bed in the evening. 

Full of timorous fancies, evenings; child fears to go to bed alone.

Children are slow in learning to walk.

He will grownup into a particular perception of reality: a combination of fear and apprehensiveness, altogether with an extreme sensitivity to the suffering of his fellow men. His sensitivity and empathy will turn – along with his life - into an apprehension mostly towards himself. He is now afraid that - what is happening to the others - may happens also to himself and vice-versa.

The following symptom embodies this combination:

Extremely anxious fearfulness was so anxious about a dog near by, which did not hurt her, that her whole body trembled; every noise in the street made her apprehensive; and if she saw boys climbing; she was in the greatest uneasiness lest they should be harmed,

Causticum can be harmed at any moment - and so the others: his friends, his family or anyone else.

Apprehension of impending danger, with urging to stool.

Great apprehension whenever anything happens; despondent, depressed, most excessive exhaustion and prostration. 

Great restlessness, which prompts him to run away. θ During intervals of epilepsy.

That strong characteristic will keep growing inside himself up to the moment when he became someone that must avoid any bad news, any report of suffering or sadness apart from the others. And it is with this combination - his possible sufferings plus the other’s sufferings – that Causticum’s own reality will be build, along his daily life.

Excessively sympathetic; she is beside herself, with weeping and sobbing, and cannot be contented when listening to accounts of the hardships of others,

Excessive sympathy for others.

After seeing a case of chorea she gets it herself.

Causticum is someone afraid of anything that could happen to himself and to everyone else. He is not afraid of anything especial, not afraid of storms, death, vermin or snakes. But, at the same time, he is afraid of everything that can became harmful and injurious to him or to the others. He is apprehensive of anything that can mean harm to anyone, including himself. Diseases, any kind of danger, highs, learning to walking, to ride in a bicycle, any kind of risk, to take a chance, or flying in an airplane - anything that can become a risk to the integrity of the body.

Anxiety with the physical troubles,

Constantly anxious and sweaty (second day), 

Becomes anxious, worried and pale. 

Very uneasy all night; when she had slept a short time, she was awakened by great anxiety and uneasiness, which scarcely allowed her to remain ten minutes in one place; she was then obliged to sit up; she turned her head involuntarily from one side to the other, until being exhausted she fell asleep again.

Anxious solicitude about every occurrence

Anxious apprehension lest something evil should happen, with urging to stool 

Causticum won’t help his family, when someone of his kin was taken to the hospital, or for his friends when they got sick or in trouble. He can’t hear their troubles, their sufferings. He knows that he is conscious of his limitations, he already knows that he must protect himself. Otherwise, he himself should get sick.

Bad effects from night-watching. θ Loss of milk. θ Dystocia.

Anxiety and despondency; has been subjected to night-watching, care, trouble, etc. θ Agalactia. 

Mental and other ailments from long-lasting grief and sorrow. θ Chronic headache. θ Face and toothache. θ Chorea. 

Milk almost disappeared in consequence of fatigue, night-watching and anxiety. 

Symptoms during labor attributable to debility from night-watching, grief, or other depressing influences. 

Ill effects of sudden emotions, fright, fear, etc. θ Chorea.

Melancholy from care, grief and sorrow. 

Could we assume what will become of him - after years and years of apprehension and suffering - through his carefulness towards himself and to the others? His mood and his general condition are most affected. He is in a fret to a point when he must, regarding he and his fellow men, hide himself from their sufferings. He knows that he can’t hear any disagreeable news or reports. He is always worried about his family and himself. He had become a hypochondriac person, full of apprehensions and fears. She became exhausted after her pregnancy, full of concerns about her baby. Every single ailment suffered by her baby turns into a torment for her: any fevers from her children, or even if there’s an impending threat to her husband’s job.

Fretful the whole day; everything which surrounded him made a disagreeable impression upon him. 

Anxious uneasy mood, as if something unpleasant impended; this unfits him for every work. 

Chilly, with sad mood and apprehension of the future, < in evening. θ Chronic headache 

Sorrowful thoughts during night, during day weeping, anxiety and misgiving about the future. 

Causticum needs to build up a strategy in order to survive from his extreme sympathy towards the others and his fears for himself. `he will become a very cautious person. We can assume that his constitutional tendency of paralysis and other neurological ailments should be represented in his mental symptoms. And those symptoms are an expression of his strategy in order to protect himself from his strong sensitivity; and his apprehensions toward himself and the others.

Fretful, still, and absorbed in himself, though previously he had been very lively, lasting half an hour (immediately after taking), 

Fretful and despondent, without being vexed. 

Persistent silence, difficult to overcome, remained after the poisoning,

Long morose silence (after six hours),

Irresistible yawning when listening or paying attention to others. 

Disinclined to pay attention,  

Momentary absence of mind; he seemed to be thinking of something, but without having any thoughts (after half an hour). 

 Inattentive and distracted, 

At the end, Causticum is exhausted, impotent, full of fears and hopeless.

Loss of courage,

Extreme tendency to start. 

Hopelessness, and despair. θ Paralysis. 

Hopeless weeping mood, expecting death. θ Hemiplegia.

Melancholy mood; sadness; hopelessness. 

Mental and other ailments from long-lasting grief and sorrow. θ Chronic headache. θ Face and toothache. θ Chorea. 

Weakness of thought; slow succession of ideas, [3]. 

Disinclined to pay attention. 

Weakness of memory. 

Anxiety the whole day, as if he had done something bad, or apprehended it, or as if he had been unfortunate.

Discontented with herself, with gloomy looks. 

No erection on attempted coition; he was impotent (twenty-seventh day). 

Frequent emissions and constant incomplete erections, at night and the following forenoon 

After any exertion, eating but little, smoking much, and emotions, in evening attack of fainting. 

We may suppose that there is no perceptible limit between Causticum and the other fellow beings. He doesn’t know when his dimensional being finishes and when the other begins. It’s like as if he had not apprehended his own physical boundaries, he had not developed it, as a child, when his body finishes and of her mother’s start. There’s this moment when the child develops a perception between his and her mother’s body. Probably it didn’t have happened properly with Causticum.

Psychoanalytic theories could become of great help at this moment. But it’s not our intention to go further this point beyond our method.

Those symptoms that are most representative on this subject are:

Stool

Anxiety after the stool. 

Anxiety after the stool, heat in the face, and inclination to sweat

Anxiety and red face from urging to stool. θ Obstruction of bowels. 

Anxious apprehension lest something evil should happen, with urging to stool, 

Apprehension of impending danger, with urging to stool.

Menses

Melancholy before menstruation, as if everything was of a dark color

Before menses: anxious dreams; melancholy; colic and backache; cramp-like spasms. 

During menstruation; dejection, tiredness, perspiration; epilepsy. 

Feeding the baby

Pain in left mamma to below axilla, without induration, especially when nursing. 

Violent itching about mamma in a nursing woman. 

Groups in Causticum

Hahnemann, Kent, Allen & Hering

Dr. Claudio C. Araújo, M.D., F.F.Hom. (Lon.)

Humor

Lively

Lively, joyous mood, first twelve hours, rapid flow of ideas; [This seemed to be the curative action in one whose previous condition of disposition and mind had been the opposite. -H.] but after twenty-one hours (in the morning after waking and through the whole forenoon), anxious trembling, sleepy confusion of the head, heavy pressure in the occiput and forehead, with heaviness of the limbs, constant pain in the joints and muscles of the fingers, arms, shoulders, knees, and feet,  

Lively disposition the whole day, contented with himself and very talkative; he constantly wished to talk with some one (curative action),  

Good-humored and talkative, in the forenoon, 

At one time excessively merry, at another depressed,  

Sometimes joyful, and soon afterwards peevish, 

Anxiety

Anxiety in the morning on waking, [1]. 

Anxiety and uneasiness at night did not permit her to sleep (twentieth day), [1]. 

Anxiety after the stool, [1].

Anxiety after the stool, heat in the face, and inclination to sweat, [1]. 

Anxiety with the physical troubles, [1]. 

Great anxiety throughout the day (thirteenth day), [1].

The greatest anxiety for twelve hours, [1].

Great anxiety, with flying thoughts and stammering.

Anxiety. θ Gastric headache. 

Anxiety, with nausea. 

Anxiety and red face from urging to stool. θ Obstruction of bowels. 

Constantly anxious and sweaty (second day), [8]. 

Becomes anxious, worried and pale. 

Timorous anxiety and depression. θ Pertussis. 

Anxious mood, as if stupefied (soon after taking), [8]. 

Anxiety and uneasiness at night did not permit her to sleep. 

Anxiety before falling asleep, as though attack of fainting would return and he would

Anxiety throughout body, with vertigo. 

Very uneasy all night; when she had slept a short time, she was awakened by great anxiety and uneasiness, which scarcely allowed her to remain ten minutes in one place; she was then obliged to sit up; she turned her head involuntarily from one side to the other, until being exhausted she fell asleep again (after twelve days), [1].

Anxious solicitude about every occurrence, [1]. 

Anxious apprehension lest something evil should happen, with urging to stool, [1]. 

Ill effects of sudden emotions, fright, fear, etc. θ Chorea.

Sensitiveness

Although disputes (e. g., political) were brought to him, still he remained quite calm, though indeed, he felt sensitive, yet he avoided speaking of it, and subdued his emotions (curative action), (the first hours), [10]. 

Sensitive and inclined to be angry, with great nervous irritability, together with slight chilliness, and on motion easily heated, [1]. 

Very sensitive, hot-heated, and vehement, [1]. 

Irritable, peevish

Irritable about trifles, [1].

Extreme irritability of mind; the slightest vexation affects her whole body, so that her knees sink under her, [1]. 

Unbounded inclination to be out of humor, [1]. 

Out of humor and irritable (after four days), [1]. 

During menstruation ill-humor and great weariness, [1].

Peevish, irritable mood, [9]. 

Peevish, weeping mood, [1]. 

Peevish, irritable, takes no pleasure in music, [1]. 

Very peevish (after forty-eight hours), [1]. 

Ill humor. 

Irascible mood.

Fretful

Fretful dreams, [1]. 

Fretful dreams, vividly remembered (fifth day), [9]. 

Fretful, [6]. 

Fretful and despondent, without being vexed (first day), [1]. 

Fretful the whole day, out of humor with himself, discontented, solicitous, and yet not disinclined to mental labor, [7]. 

Fretful, still, and absorbed in himself, though previously he had been very lively, lasting half an hour (immediately after taking), [8]. 

Fretful and despondent, without being vexed. 

Dreams: anxious; quarrelsome; fretful. 

Hysterical weeping after spasms. 

Sadness, melancholy

Melancholy mood, [1]. 

Melancholy before menstruation, as if everything was of a dark color, [1]. 

Melancholy, disposition to weep. θ Pertussis. 

Melancholy, with great precordial anxiety. 

Melancholy from care, grief and sorrow. 

Melancholy; she looks upon the dark side of everything. θ Amenorrhœa. θ Menorrhagia.

Sad, weeping mood, full of care, as if beside oneself, [1].

Sad and somewhat anxious mood, [1]. 

Low-spirited. θ Gastric headache.

With himself

Anxiety the whole day, as if he had done something bad, or apprehended it, or as if he had been unfortunate, [7].

Discontented with herself, with gloomy looks, [1]. 

He was busy with thoughts of death, with uneasiness and great solicitude, [1]. 

Becomes anxious, as though he would die. 

Fear and anxiety, so that she does not wish to live, [1]. 

Fearfulness at night, [1].

Extremely anxious fearfulness; was so anxious about a dog near by, which did not hurt her, that her whole body trembled; every noise in the street made her apprehensive; and if she saw boys climbing she was in the greatest uneasiness lest they should be harmed, [1]. 

Full of frightful ideas, in the evening, [1].

Fearfulness and distressed feeling about heart.

Fear of death. θ Paralysis.

Apprehension of impending danger, with urging to stool.

Great apprehension whenever anything happens; despondent, depressed, most excessive exhaustion and prostration, [9]. 

Frightful dreams, from which he is awakened, and on account of anxiety, which they cause, he cannot fall asleep again (twenty-first day), [1]. 


Great restlessness, which prompts him to run away. θ During intervals of epilepsy. 

Extreme tendency to start.

Starting up in fright when asleep, [1]. 

Frequent starting up in fright from sleep (third and twelfth days), [1], [7]. 

She frequently starts up and cries out in sleep, [1]. 

Very uneasy, with frequent crying in sleep, for sixteen nights in succession, [1]. 

Loss of courage, [1]. 

Contradictory, [1]. 

Hopelessness

Hopelessness, and despair. θ Paralysis.

Hopeless weeping mood, expecting death. θ Hemiplegia.

Melancholy mood; sadness; hopelessness.

Sorrowful thoughts during night, during day weeping, anxiety and misgiving about the future.

Chilly, with sad mood and apprehension of the future, < in evening. θ Chronic headache 

Restlessness of body, particularly in evening. θ Pertussis. θ Leucorrhœa.

Restlessness wants to run away. θ Epilepsy.

Uneasiness of body, with anxiety about heart, while sitting; she was obliged to rise and walk about.

Loud laughing in sleep (first day), [8].

He talks after midnight in a whining way in his sleep, "Come here, come here," and then sleeps so quietly that one could not hear him breathe, [1]. 

Had a foreboding of her attack, which interrupted her playing suddenly; she went to the sofa and assumed her peculiar position with the knees. θ Chorea.

With the others

Persistent silence, difficult to overcome.

Persistent silence, difficult to overcome, remained after the poisoning, [13]. 

Long morose silence (after six hours), [6]. 

Irresistible yawning when listening or paying attention to others.

When she closes the eyes she sees only terrible visions and distorted human faces.

Very suspicious and distrustful.

Taciturn, distant.

Furiously opinionated and quarrelsome, [1]. 

Inclined to scold and make a disturbance, without being peevish, [3]. 

Inclined to scold and quarrel, with sullen mood, [6]. 

Quarrelsome (after a quarter of an hour), [1]. 

He becomes easily violent after the midday sleep, with great despondency, [1].

Peevish, irritable, censorious mood.

Irritable temper, disposition to take everything in bad part. 

Paroxysm of quarrelsome anger. θ Pertussis.

Sympathy

Excessively sympathetic; she is beside herself, with weeping and sobbing, and cannot be contented when listening to accounts of the hardships of others, [1]. 

Excessive sympathy for others.

After seeing a case of chorea she gets it herself.

Ailments from

Mental and other ailments from long-lasting grief and sorrow. θ Chronic headache. θ Face and toothache. θ Chorea.

Injurious effects of fear and vexation. θ Chorea.

After anger, stitches in upper portion of chest, when drawing a deep breath. 


Milk almost disappeared in consequence of fatigue, night-watching and anxiety.

Symptoms during labor attributable to debility from night-watching, grief, or other depressing influences.

Pain in left mamma to below axilla, without induration, especially when nursing. Violent itching about mamma in a nursing woman.

Bad effects from night-watching. θ Loss of milk. θ Dystocia.

Anxiety and despondency; has been subjected to night-watching, care, trouble, etc. θ Agalactia.

Sad dreams of dead acquaintances, [8]. 

With the Environment

Dreams at first merry, then confused historical dreams, at night (first night), [8].

Fretful the whole day; everything which surrounded him made a disagreeable impression upon him, [7]. 

Work

Pain < by mental labor. θ Hemorrhoids. 

After overexertion of mind. θ Tinnitus.

Very fretful and indolent, [1]. 

Anxious uneasy mood, as if something unpleasant impended; this unfits him for every work, [2]. 

Disinclined to work (after ten and twenty hours), [1]. 

Kent: Tired from vexations in business.

Male Sexuality

Erections the whole forenoon (second day), [8]. 

Erection, with desire for coition, in the morning (second day), [8]. 

Sexual excitement (after a few hours), [1]. 

Increased sexual desire (first day), [8]. 

Very much increased sexual desire, with disinclination for any work, [9]. 

Sexual desire very little excited (after thirty-two days), [1]. 

Desire for emission, [1]. 

Emissions for several nights in succession, also during the afternoon nap, in one who was impotent (after three days), [1]

Frequent emissions, in an old man (after seven days), [1]. 

Frequent emissions and constant incomplete erections, at night and the following forenoon (after fifty hours), [8].

Lewd dreams the whole night, [1]. 

Voluptuous lewd dreams of beautiful girls, with emissions (first and second days), 

Frequent incomplete erections, in the morning, after coition, [9]. 

No erection on attempted coition; he was impotent (twenty-seventh day), [1]. 

During coition, blood is discharged from the urethra with the ejaculation of semen (twenty-first day), [1]. 

Female Sexuality

Aversion to coitus. θ Leucorrhœa.

Before menses: anxious dreams; melancholy; colic and backache; cramplike spasms. 

During menstruation; dejection, tiredness, perspiration; epilepsy.

Childhood

The child whines about every trifle, [1]. 

Anxiety in the evening before going to sleep; the boy could not fall asleep because he constantly thought of anxious things; one could with difficulty induce him to go to bed in the evening, [1]. 

The least thing makes the child cry. 


(In sick:) Child screams and tosses about at night. θ Whooping cough.

Full of timorous fancies, evenings; child fears to go to bed alone.

Child lies on her stomach, with one knee inserted in hollow of the other, feet drawn upon buttocks, making spasmodic jerks simulating movements of coition; muscles of face contorted, risus sardonicus. θ Chorea.

Children are slow in learning to walk; unsteady tottering gait. θ Meningeal tuberculosis.

Convulsive motions of extremities in child's sleep, with disturbed eyes, and coldness of body. θ Eclampsia.

Intellect

Weakness of thought; slow succession of ideas, [3]. 

Absence of mind, with loss of ideas, [3]. 

A kind of loss of ideas; if he was doing anything it constantly seemed to him that he had something more important to do, although he did not know what; he reflected about it, but without thinking of anything, [3].

Absence of mind, with loss of ideas; uses wrong words. 

Disinclined to pay attention, [3].

Momentary absence of mind; he seemed to be thinking of something, but without having any thoughts (after half an hour), [3]. 

Inattentive and distracted, [1]. 

Understands questions only after repetition.

Weakness of memory, [1]. 

Weakness of memory; absent-minded. θ Chorea.

He frequently pronounces words wrongly and confuses syllables and letters (e. g., "cluent coryza"), for several days, [9]. 

Dullness of head.

Dull, gloomy pressure affects brain.

Incapacity to think or to follow his business, after injurious effects of gaslight.

Tense, gloomy feeling in head.

Confusion of the head, the whole day from the morning, as if in a close room where clothes were washed and dried; aggravated by stooping, not relieved by walking in the open air, but on returning into the room, [1]. 

Confusion of the head in the morning, with coryza, [1]. 

Confusion and heat of the head (seventh day), [1]. 

A momentary (painful, tensive) confusion of the head; almost like a slight throbbing headache, disappearing after eating, [10]. 

Cloudiness of the head, [1]. 

Feeling of stupefaction and drunkenness of the head (after twenty-four hour), [1]. Stupid feeling in the head the day after an emission, [1]. 

The head feels dull and screwed together (after half an hour), [8]. 

The head feels dull and as if intoxicated, with redness of the face (after half an hour), 

Neurological

Unconsciousness. θ Epilepsy.

Imbecility before an attack. θ Epilepsy.

Mental alienation after suppression of eruption.

Convulsions: with screams, gnashing of teeth and violent movements of limbs; with feverish heat and coldness of hands and feet; in evening and at night; hysterical; epileptic; followed by paralysis.

Spasms after a fright.

Chorea, even at night, right side of face and tongue may be paralyzed.

Epileptic attack: after fright; during time of puberty; also < during new moon; with involuntary micturition; with scanty menstruation and leucorrhœa ; in scrofulous of brain; > by drinking cold water as soon as pressure in stomach commences.

After any exertion, eating but little, smoking much, and emotions, in evening attack of fainting.

Faintlike sinking of strength. 

Puerperal convulsions: paroxysms complicated with screams, gnashing of teeth and violent movements of limbs.

Intense sleepiness, can scarcely resist it, must lie down.

Soporous condition after attack. θ Epilepsy.

In morning, in bed, spasmodic attack; after rising, cold sensation in arm, then a jerk, with violent twitching in trunk and arms; anxiety.

Spasmodic laughter before, with or after spasms. 

Hysteria.