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.