• High BP. 150/ 100
• Meningitis as a child; aged 7; her mother has reported “never the same after this.” This event was significant as her father was away, and her mother was sick, so no-one visited her in the hospital. This is her first registered feeling of abandonment. After she was released she had to catch the tram home; “this was actually good as it gave me time to think before I got home about the fact that no-one visited me.” She did not learn how to speak until the age of 10; and although speech classes commenced at 5 years of age, she could not finally talk until 10 years of age. The significance of this is that she would not have been able to explain how she felt; nor would she have been able to communicate to the nurses and doctors in the hospital.

Details of the Case:
She has considerable trouble reading for longer than 30 minutes; this is an issue in her work. She suffers with low energy. Speaking is very slow; she is slow to respond to questions. There was a history of violence towards the mother, from her father. Her parents separated when she was 10; divorced when she was 13 yrs old, and she was sent to boarding school at 15 years of age. Boarding school was something she wanted as it allowed to get away from home, and find security within the school community. In her private life outside of work she is involved in pastoral care within the church. She is currently studying Theological studies. She did not learn how to speak until the age of 10. Her older brother was the only person in the family who knew what she wanted, and was her voice. Until the age of 10 years of age; he would translate her every need. She tells me also that her mother said she was extremely frustrating as she “was stubborn and difficult, as a child, and slow to learn scholastically.” Although speech and reading was much delayed she was always very good at mathematics.

First Consult:
• Diet advice re: avoiding carbohydrates and sugars; high protein; hypoglycemic diet advice given.
• Exercise.
• Rx: Baryta carbonica 30 1/day.

Baryta carbonica Rubrics used at First Consultation:
• Delusion, he does everything wrong, cannot succeed
• Strangers, presence of, aggravates
• Anxiety, others, about
• Anxiety, trifles, about
• Concentration ,difficult
• Stubbornness, Obstinate
• Slow learning to talk
• Timidity
• Confidence, want of self confidence
• Delusion, he is forsaken [This refers to her abandoned and hurt feelings when she was 7 years of age; in hospital with no-one to visit her.]
• Generalities; tendency to take cold easily

Second Consult: 12/6/06.
BP now 130/75
Now normal Kidney Function test recorded.
No change to Blood sugar readings still 7.4.
Noticeable weight loss. [I do not have an amount on the scale reading before she came, but I am estimating by size, she has lost 5 kilos.]
Has now enough energy to walk 30 minutes at a brisk pace “most days.”
Now not needing to sleep so long, now 8 hours before 10 to 12 hours.
Not so cold physically.
Has a recent cold.

The change to her personality is profound. She has reported that she is able to now read for up to 2 hours at a time. She is noticeably quicker answering questions. She also reports she is far less shy at work, and is now able to talk to people. Her “colleagues at work have noticed a big difference in that she is able to talk about how she feels and what she thinks about things.” Interestingly she reports that “her intuition is far less.”

Question: What do you mean by ‘my intuition’?

Patient: I used to get by with my intuition; now I find that I have a lot more logical part of my brain. I still have my intuition but I also have a part of me which is able to think.

In this consultation she is very touched by the profound difference in her ability to read, and her new found ability to talk. She cried a lot in the consultation and tells me a lot about her history with her inability to speak until she was 10 years of age, and how her brother was her voice. She tells me about her father, and how violent he was to her mother.

Treatment: I continue with exactly the same dose. Although her energy is considerable stronger, and her kidney function, and Blood Pressure is now normal, she has just developed a cold which I am worried will go to her chest. I keep low dose /high frequency of a 30, 1/day.

Second Consult: 12/6/06.

• Diet advice re: avoiding carbohydrates and sugars; high protein; hypoglycemic diet advice given.
• Exercise.
• Rx: Baryta carbonica 30 1/day continued.

Third Consult: 6/10/06

Below is a transcript from a video taped session with the patient. Just the fact that she agreed to being filmed is an incredible difference in her degree of social confidence. The interesting aspect is that the patient is learning how to operate in the world from an analytic framework, and not from her intuition. Initially I was worried about this, but the patient is in fact now developing an intellectual capacity to assess situations as well as being able to fall back on her intuition.

Question: What are the sort of things that have been going on?

Patient: I have bought an investment unit. So I have had a lot going on. [sighs]

Q. Did that bring up some anxiety?

P. Absolutely. I have had some of my work colleagues saying settle down you are doing the right thing; even my solicitor has been saying I am doing the right thing. Perhaps some of it is because of the treatment my intuition has gone down, and I am faced with making a big decision without relying on what I used to rely on my intuition. Now I think that more logical analysis has come into things that I am not quite trusting that yet. So I am a little bit nervous. But I am in some ways taking far more things in my stride. Yes a tad anxious secondly my normal security people were away, [Bank Manager, Solicitor.] so I had to do a fair bit by myself. So yes, very anxious.

Q. So what are the differences people have noticed about you.

P: What was I really noticing is that I could sit down and read. Before I could kind of sit down and read but it was always a bit of a struggle but now I can sit down, and read and wow! is this like everyone else just reads. This is amazing before if I had to really concentrate I could read for about half an hour then I had to have a sleep now I can read for a couple of hours, and it doesn’t affect me at all which is amazing absolutely phenomenal. So my library has increased.

My Doctor [she visited her Doctor in the previous week who now works as a Spiritual Healer] has noticed my immune system is far better I don’t struggle between visits, [3 months between visits,] far more energy. Another thing I am noticing is while everyone is wearing jumpers I am not; I used to always rug up I am not anymore, which is amazing. What my friend are saying is that I tend to be able to focus on what they are saying a lot more; not that I didn’t focus before but they just feel like I am listening a lot better to what they are saying.

Q. Do you think you are more outgoing?

P. I think I am a bit more assertive.

Q. In what ways?

P. For instance if I am not happy with the situation I will say so, not in a nasty way. I am saying what I think far more. One of the things that I have noticed is that within my role within the parish I am visiting, and talking to people much more things like that; so I am supposed I am stepping out of my security zone a bit more. I don’t know if shy is the right word, I don’t think I am as self conscious. Not that I went out to hide things it’s just that I didn’t have the confidence to just do it.

Q. What do you think were the things that stopped you developing as a child?

P. My older brother who took such good care of me. His a born leader so it was because he could do all these things better than me; so he did it; but that is only a tiny aspect of it, the other aspect of it was almost like he was the leader he was the boss; he didn’t do it in a nasty way actually a very affectionate way, but it didn’t allow me to develop. He talked for me, he was my voice, but like he is one of the most intelligent a capable people you could ever meet but because of this I was smothered, allowing something to happen is one thing, smothering is another.

Q. So things started get delayed?

P. Yes.

Q. What do you think the fact that your parents were in conflict had to do with the way you perceived the world.

P. The thing that comes instantly to mind was that I wasn’t allowed to speak out.

Q. If you were allowed to speak out what would have happened?

P. Probably violence. If I didn’t speak the violence wouldn’t happen.

Q. Do you have a memory of consciously thinking that?

P. When I was about 7. But intuitively when I was 2 but I can’t tell you anything about that. My father was bashing my mother a fair bit, and I can remember my father putting some hooks up on the kitchen sliding door, and anyway I indicated to my father about the hooks, [she would point; she could still not talk,] and he said you don’t have to worry about that as they were so high none of us kids could actually reach it. Anyway very shortly after that my father went in put the hooks on so we couldn’t access the kitchen, and starting laying into my mother.

Q. So what decision do you think you made about yourself, or your mother or your father at that particular time?

P. I felt at that point was of the things that was really frustrating was that I couldn’t help my mother.

Q. What did you feel about that?

P. Very helpless, I was just too little I just can’t do anything but one of the things that came out of it was I made up my mind on that particular day was that I would always go into bat for the little people.

Baryta carbonica Delusion Rubrics added after 3rd Consultation:

The patient talks about “If I didn’t speak the violence wouldn’t happen; I was just too little I just can’t do anything; I wasn’t allowed to speak out;” and in reference to her brother; “he was the boss; he didn’t do it in a nasty way actually a very affectionate way, but it didn’t allow me to develop. He talked for me, he was my voice.” The following delusions of Baryta carbonica are reflected in her struggle to find her size and capacity to stand up to defend her mother against the violence inflicted by her father, and find her voice to speak for herself. When she discusses her resolve to identify with the “little people” and says I made up my mind on that particular day was that I would always go into bat for the little people; I now understand the role of the church and pastoral care within her life.

• Delusion, legs are cut off
• Delusion he walks on his knees
• Delusion, as if beloved friend is sick and dying

This case has all along been analyzed by me based on the entire list of Rubrics; however, when the delusional Rubrics become apparent within the case it is imperative that the ‘theme of the delusion’ is played out within the patient’s whole life. If the ‘theme of the delusion’ is not reverberating with significant energy to match the patient’s emotional, and mental and physical disturbance, then the remedy picture is not correct.

This Baryta carbonica client has taken it upon herself within the role of the church, and outside of her pastoral care, to personally be responsible for caring for “the little people.” The delusion, legs are cut off and he walks on his knees is reflective of the helplessness of being unable to save her mother. The delusion, legs are cut off and he walks on his knees is also reflective of the helplessness of being unable to communicate as a 7 year old by herself in hospital. This Baryta carbonica case is from a lecture series that I am working on called the Delusions of Original Sin. Each remedy presented has absorbed the concept and myth of original sin, and is unique in their presentation of their pain and suffering. Baryta carbonica is not a remedy picture that is commonly associated with the delusions section of our repertory; it is a remedy normally associated with slow learning in children. However, Baryta carbonica has the delusion she is criticized. Behind this delusion is fear of being judged. In this Baryta carbonica case her inability to save her mother is reflective of the dilemma of the Baryta carbonica delusion, cannot succeed; which is reflected in the following rubrics.

The Delusion rubrics in homoeopathy mirror the psychodynamic crisis that is both the cause and cure of our patient’s illness. Once we can see into the same mirror that the patient is looking out of we see the reflection of the construction of disease within the person’s emotional, mental, and physical being. Once we identify the presenting delusion we become aware of how the person has constructed their self, and their presenting disease around this delusion. The delusion is the foundation upon which the person has constructed the story that is their life. In homoeopathy if we can delve in to the original crisis that created the first delusion we have the remedy picture, and we have the cure for the crisis of the person’s existence and subsequent disease. In this case the ‘never well since’ delusion came from the first conscious thought of being “Very helpless, I was just too little.”

The following delusions I now add to the Rubric list and to the analysis of the patient as she painfully relayed to me how it felt as a child not being able to speak. No-one believed she would speak, and she was ostracized and teased at school by the other children. Up until the age of 10 years of age she used her brother to relay what she wanted, and she would point; she had been in hospital by herself and attended school by herself, all without language. She is a very sensitive woman, she cries very easily when relaying the pain of being laughed at. In the last follow up when she says; “One of the things that I have noticed is that within my role within the parish I am visiting and talking to people much more things like that; so I am supposed I am stepping out of my security zone a bit more. I don’t know if shy is the right word, I don’t think I am as self conscious. Not that I went out to hide things it’s just that I didn’t have the confidence to just do it;” this is reflective of the following rubrics.

• Delusion, laughed at, mocked, being
• Delusion, she is criticized
• Delusion, he does everything wrong, cannot succeed
• Delusion, she is being watched

Rajan Sankaran notes, “Often the Baryta carbonica patients will give a history of being extremely shy in childhood and being unable to mix with others or make friends easily. They feel laughed at and criticized. There are many fears which are often childish (‘Fear in children’). A small thing can make then extremely anxious: ‘Anxiety, trifles about”, “Delusion, she thinks every noise is a cry of fire and she trembles’, ‘Starts easily from noise and from fright’.”

Baryta carbonica Rubrics: the Expanded List after the 2nd and 3rd Consultation
• Delusion, legs are cut off
• Delusion he walks on his knees
• Delusion, as if beloved friend is sick and dying
• Delusion, laughed at, mocked, being
• Delusion, she is criticized
• Delusion, he does everything wrong, cannot succeed
• Delusion, she is being watched
• Strangers, presence of, aggravates
• Anxiety, others, about
• Anxiety, trifles, about
• Concentration ,difficult
• Stubbornness, Obstinate
• Slow learning to talk
• Timidity
• Confidence, want of self confidence
• Delusion, he is forsaken [This refers to her abandoned and hurt feelings when she was 7 years of age; in hospital with no-one to visit her.]
• Generalities; tendency to take cold easily

Follow Up: 4th Consultation 7/11/06

Feels like she is getting a cold. This did not develop. Baryta carbonica has a tendency to catch colds frequently.

Patient: When I left last time I was thinking I was too harsh about my brother but now I think, NO I wasn’t. We had a family meeting and I realized that he wouldn’t listen to what I thought were good and valid questions and points that I made, and he wouldn’t let me speak. I feel like saying to him you know I can speak too. [In the last session the pain of being ostracized by her brother at the family meeting to do with money is still a painful experience for her as it implies she can’t talk for herself to this day, and that her questions were not valid or stupid and deserved being overlooked. The fear of being laughed at is extremely painful for Baryta carbonica.] I have subsequently realized I don’t need a protector as much as I did. I also asked Mother about when I was a baby as you can’t remember that time can you? She said I used to cry a lot, apparently I was very bad with loud noises, and that Father used to shake me very badly. After she said that she became very quiet and wouldn’t talk anymore about it; [please note that even if the mother had realized this was possibly a problem; she herself was a bashed wife,] but I have worked out the reason I wouldn’t have spoken was to avoid being shaken. This last year has had a lot going on for me emotionally, there have been a lot of changes; I now know I need to consolidate next year, and lose the weight. [Currently 103 kilos]

Follow up Rubric added: 4th Consultation
• Delusion, she thinks every noise is a cry of fire and she trembles

Apparently she was so sensitive to noise as a baby that her mother couldn’t even bang or drop a saucepan. She was also hysterical with fireworks.

Treatment:
• Diet advice re: avoiding carbohydrates and sugars; high protein; hypoglycemic diet advice given.
• Exercise.
Rx: Baryta carbonica 30 1/day. I have used dry pills.
I have not changed the dose or frequency; the patient has been on a daily dose from the first consult on the 25/4/06.

Conclusion
At this point in the consultation a cold chill comes over me, and I am shocked into realizing that this case of delayed speech and learning difficulties was more than likely the trauma of Shaken Baby Syndrome . Philip Bailey notes the origins of Baryta carbonica “In some cases there was physical trauma to the head during birth (or subsequently)”

I also now know that this woman is going forward in her life by leaps and bounds. The intensity of what she would like to say to her bother “you know I can speak too,” is reflective of the essence of the case; she can now speak! This has been a beautiful healing of Baryta carbonica. As she says herself “I am saying what I think far more. One of the things that I have noticed is that within my role within the parish I am visiting and talking to people much more things like that; so I am supposed I am stepping out of my security zone a bit more. I don’t know if shy is the right word, I don’t think I am as self conscious. Not that I went out to hide things it’s just that I didn’t have the confidence to just do it.” Philip Bailey also notes how “remarkable that individuals with longstanding brain damage can recover a great deal of function after the remedy is taken.”

She is also attending exercise classes 3 days a week, and I know that her new found emotional and mental strength will strengthen her resolve to get the weight off, and get her blood sugar levels back to normal. Philip Bailey also notes “Baryta has a tendency to dig in his heels and say no when asked to do something. This is partly due to insecurity. Baryta feels instinctively that he is not properly ‘equipped’ to deal with the complexities of the world, and one of his strategies is to resist change of any kind.” The Baryta carbonica is this case is now considering a possible job or career change. She has bought an investment property by herself, and is considering studying homoeopathy! The insecurity Bailey acknowledges within Baryta carbonica is no longer undermining her confidence. She is now no longer “too little.”

Bibliography
Bailey, Philip, M, M.D. Homeopathic Psychology, Berkeley, California, North Atlantic Books, 1995. P.p.35-36.
Sankaran, Rajan, The Soul of Remedies. Santa Cruz, Bombay, Homoeopathic Medical Publishers, 1997. P.26.
Schroyens, Frederik, M.D. Synthesis, London, Homeopathic Book Publishers, 1997.
Vermeulen, Frans, Synoptic Materia Medica.The Netherlands, Merlijin Publishers, 1992.
Vermeulen, Frans, Prisma. The Netherlands, Emryss bv Publishers, 2002.