Repertory › Remedies in the repertory

Calcium carbonicum (Calc.)

Calcium carbonicum (Calc.) appears in 2,525 rubrics in the Repertory. Of these, 123 are single-remedy rubrics in which only this remedy is listed, and 217 are small rubrics with at most two other remedies. The main emphasis is on Children, Delusions, Anxiety and Fear, followed by Delirium, Gestures and Startling. They yield the picture of a person who takes on responsibility early, fears failing at his tasks, and above all wants to conceal that he is unwell.

Children

The rubrics for Children are the largest group with 362 entries. They portray a light-complexioned, clumsy child inclined to obesity and obstinacy, for whom failure to thrive, delayed development of the muscles, and late learning to walk with weakness of the legs are listed. A single-remedy rubric lists forgetfulness in which the small child has forgotten how to walk, and the child sits contentedly and quietly in company and plays. Signs of abandonment are striking: nail biting with a feeling of being forsaken, anxiety on being lifted from the cradle or rocked, anxiety from the loss of a friend. Overprotection by the parents is found among the causes, as is responsibility taken on too early.

Duty and concealment

Two rubrics are listed as King-Pin symptoms. The first reads "Anxiety – business, about"; it covers occupation, school and every goal on which one's livelihood depends. The second states the attitude toward it: "Fear, phobia – of being observed, that his condition would be." The sufferer does not want illness or weakness to show and therefore keeps working. The two belong together: whoever fears succumbing to duties does not want to be discovered. In keeping with this are despair over one's work, a self-sufficiency that needs no help, and insistence on carrying out one's own plans.

The counterpole: inactivity

The single-remedy rubrics also show the opposite. "Aversion – sitting idle, as soon as he" stands beside abandoning a flourishing business, sadness when inactive, laziness, and sitting to think about trifles. It is an alternation between being driven and standstill, in which worries fill the idleness: worries day and night, brooding over small matters, and despair over work.

Anxiety, fear and fright

The fear is directed at earthquakes, twilight, vermin, shadows in candlelight, ridicule, and being unable to bring up the family. The anxiety sets in in the evening, in candlelight, at cruelties heard of, and at night in children who wake at two or three o'clock. Startling is listed in many forms: on closing the eyes, on being awakened, on falling asleep, before the menses, and even at the prick of a needle.

Delusions and delirium

The delusions have the character of threat and dissolution. Someone is above the bed, there is rattling above when falling asleep, someone is being murdered, the body is shattered, the brain will dissolve and the person will go insane. The room appears as a garden or as a house, and the sufferer lives in a fantasy world full of imaginary friends. In delirium the same line returns: thinking stays persistently with murder, fire and rats, according to the rubric "Thoughts – persistent – murder, fire and rats, thinks of nothing else." Delirium tremens, too, speaks of fire, rats, mice and murder. The disturbance thus has a fixed world of images that condenses into delusion.

Hands and gestures

The hands betray what the mind holds back. The rubrics list involuntary movements: clenching the fists as in raging anger, breaking needles and sticks, playing with the hands, and in children grasping and putting everything within reach into the mouth. Only this remedy also knows a restlessness of the wrists and scratching the head on waking. In anger even the desire to spit or bite is listed. The anger that otherwise lies beneath duty and worry finds a physical outlet here.

Menses and body

The cycle reaches deep into the mind. Before the menses stand startling, anger and timidity; during the menses, vacant mind and wandering thoughts; afterward, difficulty concentrating; excitement can bring the menses back on. Stool, coition and catching cold, too, are occasions for mental symptoms, such as anger before stool and anger after coition. Mental exertion aggravates, physical exertion ameliorates, in children as well.

Age and religion

With age the coloring changes. Disgust with life, weariness of life and desire for retirement appear. A single-remedy rubric describes excessive preoccupation with religion in metaphysical matters, a small rubric despair of salvation. In children there is precocity in religious matters. The seriousness of duty seems in the end to turn inward and ask about meaning.

The unrecognized self

A single-remedy rubric captures an attitude that rounds out the picture: "Morose – others do not appreciate his true worth." Beside it stand unpretentiousness, tormenting others day and night, curiosity about the supernatural, and preoccupation with metaphysical questions. The person appears modest and simple; the rubrics suggest that he at the same time remains unrecognized and suffers from it.

Summary

The Repertory portrays a figure who takes on responsibility early and hides his weakness until fear of being found out drives him to keep working. Between the burden of duty and the inactivity that produces sadness, a nocturnal world of murder, fire and rats forms and ends in anxiety and delusion. Behind it one can read the wish to be seen as well in this struggle.

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