homeopathy and the miasms - two sycotic remedies

Mark O'Sullivan, 2nd YearIrish School of Homeopathy

Essay: Sycotic Miasm & Remedies10. Jan. 2006

Compare and contrast any two anti-sycotic remedies to identify and illustrate the fundamental nature of the sycotic personality.

“Moderation is a fatal thing. Nothing exceeds like excess” - Oscar Wilde

The sycotic miasm, one of the original Hahnammanian miasms, is said to be present as the result

of inheritance of suppressed Gonorrhoea, a sexually transmitted disease characterised by intense,

painful inflammation and profuse discharge of yellow-green pus. The key here from the

homeopathic perspective is the profuseness of discharge, accompanied by increased urination.

The disease causes the profuse production of pus in order to counteract the infection. The Sycotic

miasm is said to be Gonorrhoea, suppressed by allopathic treatment and thereby pushed deeper

into the vital force. This mistunement is then passed down the ancestral line, expressing itself in

mental, emotional or physical symptoms which have excess and extremes as their keynote.

The word sycotic has its roots in the Greek for “fig” (syco) due to the figwarts, resembling figs1,

which sometimes accompany gonorrhoeal conditions and along with growths of many kinds, are

indicative of a diathesis involving overproduction. Figwarts and other growths feature in the

symptom picture of some prominent anti-sycotic remedies, two of which are discussed below.

Thuja OccidentalisMade from the Arbor Vitae, or “tree of life”, a species of Cedar tree which grows in damp places.

Known to herbalism for its balsamic resin, invaluable for moving catarrh from congested lungs. The

Cedar is held in many cultures, quite

independently, as a tree which wards off evil

spirits and is planted close to dwellings for this

reason2. Already we see some Thuja remedy

keynotes – susceptible to damp3 and

overproduction from the mucus membranes

along with a tendency towards spiritualism,

including communication with the dead. Small

cones, like warts, form on the branches of the

Cedar. It is the original sycotic remedy,

1 Ortega, p692 Buhner, in lecture at Convergence Festival

3 Vithoulkas, p205

Of 4

Thuja Occidentalis



identified by Hahnemann as a treatment for suppressed Gonorrhoea.

Individuals needing Thuja feel as though there is something wrong with them and compensate by

extreme strategies of subterfuge both toward themselves and others. Abuse can sometimes be the

trigger for this. The more primal drives are guiltily denied expression within the personality. Hence,

they can become disconnected from themselves in an elaborately constructed social persona

designed to appear virtuous, calm and above reproach4. They can appear open, like Phosphorus5

or very structured, like Kali Carb6 while all the time being secretive and very careful not to expose

their “true” natures. They compartmentalise their lives and can be quite different in temperament to

one set of friends than to another. While all the time behind this façade they can be filled with

doubt, believing themselves to be ugly and contemptuous.

This disassociation can lead to their feeling weak and fragile in their bodies. And through an

excess of mental control, rigidity in thinking and in the physique can result. Therefore, they can be

cruel and obsessive in mind and arthritic in body. The basic drives can be sublimated into religious

fervour and relations with the spirit realms. They feel “split” and estranged from themselves. The

suppressed vital force, needing expression, can manifest physically in growths, tumours, warts,

polyps and moles.

Argentum NitricumSilver nitrate is a poisonous compound which used to be used medicinally for eye infections. It is

also used in the development of photographs, due to its sensitivity to light, and in the production of

explosives. Photophobia is an Arg Nit symptom, as is

epilepsy brought on by flashing lights7. They can have

very good, “photographic” memories.

A person in an Arg. Nit. state is hurried, anxious and

excitable. They feel pressure when working to deadlines

and fear failure. They can be riddled with phobias and

superstitions, strange ideas that stick in their heads

leading them to act in a seemingly irrational manner.

4 Sankaran, p2035 Wallace, p1506 Vithoulkas, p2077 Vermeulen, p155

Of 4

Argentum Nitricum



They are highly loquacious, lateral thinking troubleshooters8 who are intellectually omnivorous.

Their performance anxiety can lead to gastric problems, “explosive” flatulence, eructations and

diarrhoea9. With all the mental energy firing, nerves can also become frazzled, with heart

palpitations and in extreme cases, epilepsy. They are warm blooded and crave sugar.

Two key issues for the Arg Nit state are fear of losing control and expanded personal boundaries.

The Arg Nit state is one of feeling somehow internally disordered, set apart from others and

perhaps even feeling despised. They fear insanity. They can do nothing right and feel that they

cannot ever succeed. In the face of this they must maintain control and “hold it together”, prevail in

times of crisis or alternatively, just drop everything and leave on a whim if they give in to their

escapist tendencies10. They are accelerated and impulsive, getting into everything around them.

They can lack a sense of social appropriateness, being extremely direct. Their anxiety can be

exacerbated if there are temporal or spacial boundaries set around them, blocking any means of

flight. They are better for open spaces.

Sycotic Nature of the remedies

As already noted, the sycotic miasm is one of extremes on every level of the individual. Both Thuja

and Arg Nit exhibit extreme overreaction to negative internal feelings resulting in a flight to the

mind, where fixed or obsessive ideas and a desire to maintain control result in disordered mental

behaviour which distracts them from that which they would rather not acknowledge – dark inner

feelings of somehow being deficient. This is expressed through polish and control in Thuja but Arg

Nit distracts himself with frenetic activity.

The flip side of this extremity is weakness11 and both remedies experience symptoms of physical

weakness along with obsessive worry about the state of their health and low self esteem.

Physical overproduction is marked in both remedies. In growths and discharges for Thuja, whereas

this is cheifly expressed in flatulence for Arg Nit. Mentally, both remedies are extreme with Arg Nit

in particular turning this into a torrent of verbiage. Ultimately, both have an excess of cowardice

toward their primal energies which causes one to hide and the other to take flight.

8 Sankaran, p169 Tyler, p8110 Sankaran, p1711 Wallace, p148

Of 4



References

Materia Medica of Homeopathic Medicines

Dr. S.R. Phatak

Remedy Notes 1

John Wallace, SRP Press 1999

Homeopathic Drug Pictures

M.L. Tyler

The Essence of Materia Medica

George Vithoulkas, B. Jain Publishers, New Delhi, 2001

The Soul of Remedies

Rajan Sankaran, Homeopathic Medical Publishers, Mumbai, 1997

Prisma, An arcana of Materia Medica Illuminated

Franz Vermeulen, Emryss, Haarlem, 2004

Notes on the Miasms

Dr. S. Ortega, National Homeopathic Pharmacy, New Delhi, 1980

The Lost Language of Plants

(Also, lecture as part of Convergence Festival, Dublin 2003.)

Stephen Harrod Buhner, Chelsea Green Publishing, VA USA. 2002

Of 4

homeopathy and the miasms - two sycotic remedies

Documents