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Asa foetida (Asaf.)

Asa foetida (Asaf.) appears in 260 rubrics in the Repertorium. Of these, 15 are single rubrics in which only this remedy is listed, and 12 are small rubrics with at most two other remedies. The emphasis is on Hysteria, Anxiety and Excitement, and also on Mood, Consciousness and Indecision; in the total count, Fear and Anxiety predominate. The picture is that of a nervous excitability that settles in the body and is connected with suppressed discharges.

Hysteria and suppressed discharges

Hysteria is the core theme. The rubrics link it with intestinal complaints, with a deep-seated scrofulous constitution, psora or syphilis, and with the state after suppression of discharges. The same connection is found in Excitement: it occurs after suppressed leukorrhea, which is recorded as a single rubric. This can be read as a hint that a congestion in the body gives way into the mind and puts it into unrest.

Anxiety and fear

Anxiety stands in close connection with the body. It alternates with joint pains, arises from excitement with heart irritation and occurs as nervous anxiety in nervous attacks; after eating it appears as anguish. Fear rises from the abdomen. Complaints of the abdomen are also recorded as a rubric of their own. The soul reacts here like an organ.

Alternation and unrest

The mood is unstable. A single rubric describes that it changes suddenly on touch, and there are outbursts of joy with laughter, fits of grief and indifference that turns into irritability. The person goes to and fro, and the indecision diminishes in the open air. After coition she may become unconscious. The delusion that the brain is becoming narrower and contracting completes the picture.

Chorea

Striking is a group of single rubrics in which, in chorea, clarity of mind is preserved: very clear consciousness, clarity of thought and a wealth of ideas. While the body is restless, the mind remains bright.

Summary

The remedy picture shows an irritable, erratic nervousness that remains bound to bodily processes: to suppressed excretions, to the intestine and to the heart. Anxiety and hysteria run along these lines, and the mood tips at the slightest occasion.

A reference work for professionals; it does not replace diagnosis or treatment.