MEDORRHINUM - A SUMMARY OF THE MENTAL SYMPTOMS
EUGENIO F. CANDEGABE (JAIH, VOL. 73, 1/1980)
The erotic-aggressive instincts are exalted and heightened in the Medorrhinum patient, resulting in sudden brief spurts of over-activity. When this is compounded with a Tuberculin background, it is much more detached or subdued than Thuja. This Medorrhinum-Tuberculin combination produces a “minus condition” and does not show the destructive activity usually found in the more hypertrophic Thuja type.
If the disease form of Medorrhinum comes first in the beginning of the psychotic manifestations, and then is impregnated with Tuberculosis Thuja then offers a picture of complete psychopathic development in the mental spheres.
The anxiety of conscience is expressed much the same as Thuja. The moral conscience may develop a claim of an affected perversion, such as “he is a genius” whereas the Medorrhinum-Tuberculin patient will undervalue his conflict, and his solution will be in Fear and Insecure patterns of reaction. Thuja will find solutions through hypertrophic and ego aggressiveness.
To summarize the mental scheme of Medorrhinum, there are two fundamental aspects of the psychotic Miasma: a weakening memory and mind, and an “affected” perversion to solve conflicts.
First Aspect
Characteristic Symptoms
Affected Perversion leads to anxiety of Anxiety of conscience
conscience such as moral conscience claims. Remorse
Religious affections
Reaction to conflict is fright(usually mental) Fear of Dark
Insanity
Impending disease
Conditioned by Two Symptoms: Cancer
Anticipation Anticipation
Presentiments – a mixture of fatalism, and Over-excited of coming events
clairvoyance causing him to anticipate evils, bad news
pessimistically, which punish him from the evil will overtake him
beyond for imaginary sins. Anticipates something will happen
Clairvoyance
Three Reactive Symptoms featuring fright: Delusion something terrible has happened.
A. Paranoid projection of his own aggressive Delusions
pushes buried in the unconscious towards sees rats, faces, people
the world as he sees it, and appearing as someone is behind him
delusions while awake, and as dreams someone comes and looks at him
while asleep. voices whisper and say “come”
Repressions of movement forming on the Dreams
other side the basis for an obsessive Neurosis. ghosts, spectres
frightful, horrible
B. State of permanent escaping vis-à-vis these Hurry
Aggressions, a state of enlivened psychosis impatience
Escape from himself. restless anxiousness at night
Anxiety for time, appointments
C. Hypersensitive towards the circumstantial Starting from noises, during sleep
world, expressed through startling. Sensitive to rudeness
Dullness
Children appear dull mentally
Weakness of memory names,
addresses, his own name
forgets words while speaking
forgets for stating his symptoms
thoughts vanish, cannot write
connected sentences
Second Aspect
Memory Deterioration – Selective ability for
abstract things; forgets names, what he had read,
uses inaccurate words, mental dullness as a weight
on the vertex seeming to affect the mind.
Two symptoms featuring mental dullness:
A. Anticipation, provoked by loss of Self Confidence lacking
self-confidence, due to mind weakening. Mistakes made during headache
B. Hurried, anxious, restless pushing him Time anxiety if supposed to keep,
to try to think faster than his mind is capable. or to meet at given time.
Does not want to speak or listen to anyone. Indisposed to talk or listen when weary Prostration of mind during headache Procrastinates
morning on waking
aversion to mental work
Five Symptoms Resulting from work seems impossible
Mental Dullness work seems to drive him crazy
1. Procrastination of work or thought. Irritability
Being forced to produce seems to drive him crazy. reading
writing
trifles
over-conscientious about trifles
2. Irritability at mental effort either Time passes slowly
in reading or writing confounds present with past
Delusion, as if in a dream delusion,
3. Fear to be wrong – writes down minute, trivial Delusion, everything is unreal
details to try and prevent mistakes. Mood changes
Cross by day, exhilarating at night
4. Loss of time – a consequence of hurry Weeping when spoken to
and dullness Sad thinking of complaints
5. Loss of feeling for reality – despairs of recovery, Loathing of life
tired of living, thinks of suicide as a solution to his Indifference to life
torment. Despairs of religious salvation.