Understanding Cocculus 

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

Easy insulted, sad and offended. That’s our patient.The offences she had felt deep in herself are still there. Even many years afterwards they are still recurring, at almost every moment.The only way to get rid of them is to move her mind away from her thoughts.

But they insist in return.

Excessive irritability of mind, every trifle offends him, [5]. 

Everything makes him angry and peevish, [1]. 

She is easily angered, takes everything in bad part (after twenty-four hours), [4].

 Extremely inclined to be offended, the slightest trifle offends her (after one hour), [1].

She is offended at the slightest circumstance, often to weeping, with contraction of the pupils; after weeping, loss of appetite, [1]. 

Very much affected and offended by slight obliquities and untruths of others, [1]. 

As time moves forwards, her irritability will turn into sadness. Bended by this heavy toll, Cocculus moves, year after year, into a state of sadness and indifference. She is now over taken by offence, by indignation and it all turns into sadness and indifference towards the others and the world around her.

Constant sad thoughts, as though he had suffered an insult, [3].

► She is absorbed in the saddest thoughts, and affronts sink deep into her heart, [1]. 

Great sorrow fullness, with constant inclination to sit in a corner buried in thought.

Thoughts directed to an unpleasant object; she is absorbed in herself, and notices nothing about her, [1]. 

Despairing mood, [1]. 

Changeable, hypochondriacal humor, melancholy reflections; disposition to be anxious and frightened. 

Melancholy and sad; indulges in sad reveries; is sensitive to insults, slights and disappointment. 

No pleasure in anything, desire for nothing, [1]. 

Probably that’s how a Cocculus patient will approach our praxis. Overwhelmed by grief, by offence and by sorrow.

But when it all started? Where were the causes of her offence and sorrow?

There is one single leitmotif pointed out by Ken many times in his Lectures: Cocculus did start her sufferings from nursing, combined with vexation and grief.

And what does it means nursing? It’s only baby feeding?

Nursing means to care to someone. It means to spend the night besides a sick loving one. (Means also breast feeding her baby…)

We must stress here that it is not only care, but physically help someone; stay by his side during the night, change shifts with someone else, spend the night beside the sick, giving up her own rest hours to help the sick.

After many and many hours of nursing, caring, of loss of sleep, our patient is exhausted. Mentally and physically weak, with her memory impaired, distracted and slow.

Thinking fatigues head. 

Memory weakened, or want of memory; head readily fatigued by mental exertion. 

Distracted (loss of memory); he easily forgets of what he has just thought, [4]. 

Thinks and answers correctly but slowly; takes a long time in reflecting. 

Slowness of comprehension; cannot find the right word; what has passed he cannot remember; forgets himself, cannot talk plainly, or is irritable, speaks hastily, cannot bear least noise or contradiction. 

Difficulty in understanding what is heard or read and in appreciating the lapse of time.

The proving shows that Cocculus cares more to the others then to himself. 

Is the well-being of others, their health and wealth, more important to Cocculus then his own life? Is that the reason why he gave up his rest, his moments with his family and friends to give it to the others? There is nothing related to his friends, children, parents or family in the Cocculus proving. There’s only his strange way to perceive the world: His fellow human beings are more important then himself.

Is Cocculus that aunt that stayed behind, didn’t got married and spent her live taking care of all the seniors of the family, papa and mama included? And after their death, she falls ill, exhausted, needed of sleep, deeply affected by the fact that no one in her family could ever express a word of thanks. After everything she had done! All the nights she had spend at the bed of her mother, and now she is being accused of theft!

Earnest and little concerned as to his own health; he is very anxious about other's sickness, [1]. 

Cocculus gave up her loves and needs and became someone dedicated to the others throughout her whole life. Her indignation, anger and resentments are only the exhaustive consequences of a life devoted to the others. 

Did she expect anything in return of her devotion? And she hasn’t got it? Is that the reason now why she is so unbalanced and angry? 

For what reason she gave up her life?

When she became to found out that her life was less important then the life of others? 

There are two opposite movements in Cocculus: Extreme sensibility to noise, loud talking, etc.

Excessive sensitiveness (after twenty-four hours), [1]. 

Very sensitive mood; everything worries him, [1]. 

Excessive irritability, excited by loud talking or least increase of temperature.

Excessive irritability of mind, every trifle offends him, [5]. 

She is easily angered, takes everything in bad part (after twenty-four hours), [4].

Kent: Extreme irritability of the nervous system. The least noise or jar is unbearable. You have heard that Bell. is worse from a jar. So is Cocculus, and quite like Bell. Cocculus is also like Belladonna in its sleeplessness, and other general conditions.

From the other side we have numbness, weak memory, she is lost in time.

Kent: He cannot realize that it has been a whole night. A week has gone by, and it seems but a moment, he is so dazed. Slowness of comprehension; cannot find the right word to express his thoughts, so slowly does his mind work; what has passed he cannot remember; forgets what he has just read; cannot talk; cannot bear the least noise; cannot bear the least contraction.

The tongue will not respond. There is confusion of mind and difficulty of articulation. An idea comes into his mind and becomes fixed. He cannot convert it or move it, but it just stays there, and if he speaks he will say something that will cause you to realize that that same idea is holding on to him. So he appears to be in a state of imbecility.

We can assume here that her further mental absence is an opposite reaction to her extreme sensitivity. She is protecting herself or became exhausted from suffering so much due to her over sensitiveness and her cares.

Kent stated that Cocculus fears are a result of her exhaustion, not the contrary.

Kent: Fears death. Feels as if some awful thing was about to happen. All this is the result of grief, anxiety, vexation, prolonged loss of sleep.

Cocculus is a too sensitive patient, who had devoted her life nursing the others. Now she is exhausted, is suffering from headaches, prostration, nausea and weak memory. Confused about time, absent and distracted.

Why did she become such person?

She is exhausted; unable to sustain any mental or physical effort; weak in the knees, weak in the back, and when the times comes for her to sleep she cannot sleep. Sickness brought about in this manner is analogous to that caused by the Cocculus poison, and hence Cocculus from the time of Hahnemann to the present time has been a remedy for complaints from nursing, not exactly complaints that come on in the professional nurse, for Cocculus needs the combination of vexation, anxiety and prolonged loss of sleep, such as you have in the mother or daughter who is nursing, or the nurse when she takes on the anxiety felt by a member of the family; a wife nursing her husband through typhoid, or other long spell of sickness.

At the end of it she is prostrated in body and mind, she cannot sleep, she has congestive headaches, nausea, vomiting and vertigo. That shows how a Cocculus case begins. One who is thus exhausted in body and mind goes out for a ride. She gets sick headache, pain in the back, dizziness, nausea and vomiting. She gets into the car to take a journey. Sick headache comes on. She goes on a mile or two and will have nausea, vomiting and sick headache. She feels weak all over, feels as if she would sink away.

She is already too exhausted from serve, too exhausted of being obliged (by herself) of doing something. 

Dreams that his knees were swollen and painful, [9]. 

What does to kneel means? To be the servant? To pray? To bow before someone? Is she too exhausted from pray?

Did she pray for forgiveness? Because she felt so much guilty, she felt as she had done a terrible thing.

What is she asking when praying? Help for the others? Is she wishing help, health or wealthy, not for herself, but for the others, to those people that are far more important than her?

She perceives herself praying for too long, to that point that her knees are swollen and painful.

Melancholy and sadness, with weeping and constant profound absorption in sorrowful thoughts; great apprehensive anxiety of conscience and feeling at heart as after committing a wicked deed, with desire to escape.

Great dissatisfaction with himself, [6]. 

Anxiety, as if she had committed a great crime, [1]. 

Great anxiety, as though he had done some evil (after twenty-nine hours), [7]. 

Did Cocculus felt so wrong inside herself that, blaming herself for a wicked deed done long before, she felt as she was not worthy of having a normal life? The life of others became then far more important then her own.

Great dissatisfaction with himself, [6].

She is absorbed in the saddest thoughts, and affronts sink deep into her heart, [1]. 

Great sorrow fullness, with constant inclination to sit in a corner buried in thought.

Thoughts directed to an unpleasant object; she is absorbed in herself, and notices nothing about her, [1]. 

Despairing mood, [1]. 

Changeable, hypochondriacal humor, melancholy reflections; disposition to be anxious and frightened.

Melancholy and sad; indulges in sad reveries; is sensitive to insults, slights and disappointment.

That’s our hypothesis: Cocculus gave up her life due to a strong sensation of being faulty and wicked. She has an illusion of a early misdeed and, as a penitence, she has to devote her life to the others, in order to pay what she had wrongly done. She would tell us some story about a wrong deed long ago and probably we will evaluate it – but such a small thing! – but it’s only a fact were she justifies her sensation of wrong done. It’s not part of reality. It belongs to her wrong impression of herself, now fixed in some point, in some giving fact she had experienced. For instance, let’s say that she stole a candy at the shop or a pencil from a school mate. That fact will be the justification for her sensation of been sinned away her day of grace. Because from now on she will devote her life to rescue her soul, doing whatever it takes to help and care for the others. Their life will become more important than her own living. She had keeled through her whole life, asking for forgiveness, giving her life away to the sick, to the poor, to those suffering from any kind of need. But now her knees are swollen, painful and she perceived that her strategy is not taking her to salvation. People don’t care so much for what she has been doing. Now come anger, indignation, vexation and grief, combined with nursing. She is ready for sickness.

An Kent says: She is exhausted; unable to sustain any mental or physical effort; weak in the knees, weak in the back, and when the times comes for her to sleep she cannot sleep. Sickness brought about in this manner is analogous to that caused by the Cocculus poison, and hence Cocculus from the time of Hahnemann to the present time has been a remedy for complaints from nursing, not exactly complaints that come on in the professional nurse, for Cocculus needs the combination of vexation, anxiety and prolonged loss of sleep, such as you have in the mother or daughter who is nursing, or the nurse when she takes on the anxiety felt by a member of the family; a wife nursing her husband through typhoid, or other long spell of sickness.

Groups in Cocculus

Hahnemann, Allen, Hering and Kent

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

 

Humor

 

Cheerful

Irresistible inclination to sing and tra la; a kind of mania

Cheerful and contented, [7]. [Curative action. -Hahnemann.] 

Frolicsome, contented, joyous; he became witty and jocose, [1]. [In part curative action. -Hahnemann.]

Talkativeness with witty joking.

After a few hours, he became lively and jocose, [6]. 

Anxiety

"Anxietas," [10]. 

Anxiety, [1]; (after six hours, and third day), [15]. 

Anxiety concerning the curability of a slight complaint, in the morning, [1]. 

Anxiety, as if she had committed a great crime, [1]. 

Great anxiety, as though he had done some evil (after twenty-nine hours), [7]. 

Frightful anxiety, like a dream, which prevented every attempt to sleep, [1]. 

Sudden excessive anxiety, [1].

Sensitiveness

Excessive sensitiveness (after twenty-four hours), [1]. 

Very sensitive mood; everything worries him, [1]. 

Irritability

Very sensitive mood; everything worries him; irritable; sullen.

Excessive irritability, excited by loud talking or least increase of temperature. 

Very easily affronted; every trifle makes him angry. 

Angry and indignant form of delirium. θ Encephalitis. 

Ill effects of anger 

Speaks hastily, cannot endure contradiction.

Slowness of comprehension; cannot find the right word; what has passed he cannot remember; forgets himself, cannot talk plainly, or is irritable, speaks hastily, cannot bear least noise or contradiction. 

Excessive irritability of mind, every trifle offends him, [5]. 

Everything makes him angry and peevish, [1]. 

She is easily angered, takes everything in bad part (after twenty-four hours), [4].

Extremely inclined to be offended, the slightest trifle offends her (after one hour), [1]. 

She is offended at the slightest circumstance, often to weeping, with contraction of the pupils; after weeping, loss of appetite, [1]. 

Very much affected and offended by slight obliquities and untruths of others, [1]. 

Kent: Extreme irritability of the nervous system. The least noise or jar is unbearable. You have heard that Bell. is worse from a jar. So is Cocculus, and quite like Bell. Cocculus is also like Belladonna in its sleeplessness, and other general conditions.

Sadness

Constant sad thoughts, as though he had suffered an insult, [3].

She is absorbed in the saddest thoughts, and affronts sink deep into her heart, [1]. 

Great sorrow fullness, with constant inclination to sit in a corner buried in thought.

Thoughts directed to an unpleasant object; she is absorbed in herself, and notices nothing about her,. 

Despairing mood, 

Changeable, hypochondriacal humor, melancholy reflections; disposition to be anxious and frightened. 

Melancholy and sad; indulges in sad reveries; is sensitive to insults, slights and disappointment. 

No pleasure in anything, desire for nothing. 

Weeping. 

Sobbing, moaning and groaning.

Extremely earnest, after which he breaks out into complaints, [1]. 

Hypochondria, especially in the afternoon, [1]. 

With Himself/Herself

Thoughts fixed on one unpleasant subject; she is absorbed within herself and observes nothing about her. 

Lies with eyes closed, regardless of what is passing around him. 

Melancholy and sadness, with weeping and constant profound absorption in sorrowful thoughts; great apprehensive anxiety of conscience and feeling at heart as after committing a wicked deed, with desire to escape. 

When her mind is turned away from herself her sufferings are forgotten. 

Pale, prostrated and full of despair. θ Menorrhagia. 

Fear

Apprehensive mood; fears death and unknown dangers.

Great fear of death. θ Gastritis.

Dreams of dying and death,

Frightened look. 

Startles very easily.

Mental terror during paroxysm. θ Puerperal eclampsia. 

Overpowered with the most frightful fearfulness, which increased every second (soon after), [15]. 

Very vivid dreams, causing fright (after two hours), [1]. 

Dreams that something evil had happened, [1]. 

Kent: Fears death. Feels as if some awful thing was about to happen. All this is the result of grief, anxiety, vexation, prolonged loss of sleep.

Mild, indolent and despondent in the face of difficulties.

Tearful chagrin about least trifle. 

Nothing pleases her, is tearful and easily discouraged. θ Chronic diarrhœa.                              

Great dissatisfaction with himself, [6]. 

He has no desire, and takes pleasure in nothing, 

Discouraged, [1]. 

Nervousness of twelve years standing aggravated to insanity by grief; commenced while riding in a boat.

Sensation in abdomen as if sharp stones rubbed together at every movement.

Dreams that his knees were swollen and painful. 

Kent: She is exhausted; unable to sustain any mental or physical effort; weak in the knees, weak in the back, and when the times comes for her to sleep she cannot sleep. Sickness brought about in this manner is analogous to that caused by the Cocculus poison, and hence Cocculus from the time of Hahnemann to the present time has been a remedy for complaints from nursing, not exactly complaints that come on in the professional nurse, for Cocculus needs the combination of vexation, anxiety and prolonged loss of sleep, such as you have in the mother or daughter who is nursing, or the nurse when she takes on the anxiety felt by a member of the family; a wife nursing her husband through typhoid, or other long spell of sickness.

At the end of it she is prostrated in body and mind, she cannot sleep, she has congestive headaches, nausea, vomiting and vertigo. That shows how a Cocculus case begins. One who is thus exhausted in body and mind goes out for a ride. She gets sick headache, pain in the back, dizziness, nausea and vomiting. She gets into the car to take a journey. Sick headache comes on. She goes on a mile or two and will have nausea, vomiting and sick headache. She feels weak all over, feels as if she would sink away.

With the Others

Earnest and little concerned as to his own health; he is very anxious about other's sickness 

With the Environment

Time passes too quickly.

Time passes too rapidly, several hours seem as short as one hour, [4]. 

Intolerance of noise or any disturbing influence.

Sensitiveness of hearing; dreads sudden noise. 

Noise in ears like rushing of water, with hardness of hearing.

Roaring or ringing in ears. θ Typhoid.

Great hyperesthesia of all senses and an exalted susceptibility to impressions.

The least noise or jar is unbearable.

A slight noise or slight unexpected touch causes starting and trembling all over body. θ Intermittent.

Sensitiveness of talking, warm air, riding and grief.

Work

Languid, shirks her work. θ Amenorrhœa. 

Vacillating, cannot accomplish anything at her work or finish anything; with contracted pupils.

No desire to work, [1]. 

Male Sexuality

Increased sensitiveness of genitals.

Excitement in the genitals, with desire for coition, [1]. 

Increased sensitiveness of the genitals, [3].

Excitement of genitals, with desire for coition.

Seminal emissions at night; spermatorrhœa.

Alternate excitement and depression of genitals.

Weakness with excitability of sexual organs, sensitiveness of testicles.

Genitals relaxed in the night, with the prepuce drawn back behind the glans (after twelve hours), [1]. 

Female sexuality

She appears imbecile; at other times acts like a maniac, is wicked, talks constantly; dances and makes all kinds of gesticulations. θ Mental derangement following amenorrhœa.

Will eat nothing but bread and water, at other times eats ravenously. θ Mental derangement from amenorrhœa.

Puerperal eclampsia; paroxysms passing off with a sigh after several minutes; paroxysms then become more frequent, last longer and come during sleep or when awake; spells cause mental terror at the time; is conscious during paroxysm, but cannot move, eyes open and immovable.

Intellectual

Memory weakened, or want of memory; head readily fatigued by mental exertion. 
Distracted; he easily forgets of what he has just thought.

Distracted (loss of memory); he easily forgets of what he has just thought, [4]. 

During the attack speech difficult, afterwards difficulty in reading and thinking. θ Vertigo.

Often failed to use right expression for thoughts, could scarcely recollect anything; mumbled, so that it was great trouble for him to pronounce his words. θ Typhoid.

Thinks and answers correctly but slowly; takes a long time in reflecting.

Slowness of comprehension; cannot find the right word; what has passed he cannot remember; forgets himself, cannot talk plainly, or is irritable, speaks hastily, cannot bear least noise or contradiction. 

Difficulty in understanding what is heard or read and in appreciating the lapse of time.

She sits in deep thought, [1]. 

Thinking fatigues head. 

Painful sensation of emptiness in head.

Head dizzy, heavy and painful. θ Intermittent fever and grief.

Neurological

Stupid feeling in head.

Loud cries of despair, and irritation, alternate with stupefaction of brain. θ Prosopalgia.

trigeminal neuralgia

Angry and indignant form of delirium, when roused complains of dizziness and cephalalgia, as if head was tightly compressed; soon falls into a murmuring stupor, with tossing of head and trembling of hands; has not slept an instant for seven days. θ Encephalitis.

Mental derangement with vertigo, constant desire to escape; great fear and talkativeness.

Stupidly dumb (after six hours), [15]. 

Stupefied (after six hours), [15]. 

Overpowering stupefaction as from sleep, while awake (coma vigil), [1].

Kent: He cannot realize that it has been a whole night. A week has gone by, and it seems but a moment, he is so dazed. Slowness of comprehension; cannot find the right word to express his thoughts, so slowly does his mind work; what has passed he cannot remember; forgets what he has just read; cannot talk; cannot bear the least noise; cannot bear the least contraction.

The tongue will not respond. There is confusion of mind and difficulty of articulation. An idea comes into his mind and becomes fixed. He cannot convert it or move it, but it just stays there, and if he speaks he will say something that will cause you to realize that that same idea is holding on to him. So he appears to be in a state of imbecility.

Mental derangement with vertigo. With most all the mental symptoms there is vertigo. He lies in a state of apparent unconsciousness, yet knows all that is going on and at times is even able to remember and describe what was going on, but does not even wink; does not move a muscle. There is an appearance of ecstasy, a smile upon the face. Knows what is going on, yet with complete relaxation of the muscles without speech or apparent recognition of anyone. Perfectly relaxed, and yet knowing what is going on? That resembles catatonia. Unable to think.

Kent: You can hardly see what is coming when the mental activities are slowed down, from anxiety, and loss of sleep, such as we have in nursing. The mind appears like approaching imbecility, and as you look upon the true Cocculus case you wonder if that patient has not been growing insane for a year or two, because the mind seems almost a blank. He looks into space and slowly turning the eyes toward the questioner answers with difficulty. It occurs in nervous prostration, in typhoid fever. It is so nearly like Phos. Acid., that the two remedies must be carefully individualized. Time passes quickly.