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Causticum Hahnemanni (Caust.)

Causticum Hahnemanni (Caust.) appears in 1,581 rubrics in the repertory. Of these, 81 are single-remedy rubrics in which only this remedy is listed, and 88 are small rubrics with no more than two other remedies. The emphasis lies on children (173), fear (93), anxiety (76), ailments from particular causes (75), delusions, weeping, and sadness; grief, laughing, and epileptic states also stand out. From these emerges the picture of a compassionate person with a love of justice, who carries grief for a long time, is seized by fear for others at twilight and at bedtime, and whose sympathy can turn into bitterness or rebellion.

Grief as the root

Grief is the leading theme. The repertory records grief as the cause of chronic, long-lasting complaints, among them headache, facial pain, toothache, and chorea; also grief after the loss of pets, during childbirth, and with complaints, along with multiple sclerosis from grief and agalactia, which in turn brings grief and worry about the lack of milk. One single-remedy rubric describes grief with bitterness, another alcoholism after grief; sadness is bitter or embittered and persists day and night, accompanied by weeping. A delay is also recorded: complaints show themselves only late. The remedy thus shows a person who keeps loss and mortification inside for a long time until the body answers.

Fear for others

The fear is directed strikingly at the welfare of others. Recorded are fear that harm may come to persons, that climbing boys may hurt themselves, that an accident may befall friends, along with fear of misfortune at twilight and of something bad happening, which is better in bed from the warmth of the bed. A single-remedy rubric records that fear is worse at twilight; a small rubric, that street noises cause fear. At the same time there is anxiety about one's own future in the evening and at twilight. A single-remedy rubric names the feeling of the presence of deceased persons. The fear is bound less to one's own death than to the misfortune that might befall others, and to the time of day of transition.

Going to bed and night

Several single-remedy rubrics group around going to bed: the child is afraid to go to bed alone; anxiety at bedtime, so that the person can be induced to go to bed only with difficulty; fear of being alone at bedtime; fear of falling asleep in the dark; anxiety about sleep, as if the weakness would return and the person must die. Added are anxiety until midnight on waking, also in children, restlessness on waking, and timidity at night. In the evening, anxiety of conscience, tormenting and terrible thoughts, terrible phantoms, wandering thoughts, and exalted fancies increase at twilight. The evening becomes the time when consciousness is no longer distracted.

Justice, idealism, and politics

A peculiarity among the single-remedy rubrics are states of idealism and justice: obsession with justice, anarchist from idealism, and brutality, to which the person is sensitive. Small rubrics add enthusiasm about politics, elation in regard to politics, and political eccentricity. Also present are mercifulness, lack of needs, the ability to observe, determination in children, and hatred of people who have offended. Excitement occurs in debates and disputes. The sympathy of children is also recorded: they weep and cry from sympathy. Alongside stand children who always demand from the parents an explanation for everything, with a single-remedy rubric under Impertinence and insolence. A strong sense of justice appears here in the guise of compassion as well as of demand.

Epilepsy and spasm

Several single-remedy rubrics trace back to epileptic states: silly behavior, childish behavior, dullness, forgetfulness, idiocy, and imbecility before the attack; laughing before, during, and after epileptic convulsions, also spasmodic laughing; weeping after convulsions, cramps, and spasms, as well as in chorea. Weakness of memory in chorea, laughing in chorea, and stammering from vexation, excitement, and asthma follow in sequence. The mind is thus framed by seizures: before the attack it changes, after the attack weeping or laughing follow, which apparently accompany the discharge.

Paralysis and speech

A second bodily field is paralysis. Recorded are fear of death in paralysis, hopelessness in paralysis, weeping in paralysis, and aphasia with paralysis of the tongue. Speech is slow, tenacious, difficult after attacks of whooping cough, stammering from vexation, excitement, and asthma; words are wrongly stressed or misspoken, and in writing wrong syllables are put down. Using the voice ameliorates; in aphonia in asthma it falls silent. A further indication is found under the delusion of an empty space between brain and skull, and that the fingers are enlarged when touching something.

Motion, hurry, and children

Walking and motion change the state: confusion ameliorates after walking, especially in the open air, while on the other hand walking brings discomfort, excitement, and laziness. There is hurry with shortness of breath and shortness of breath. The person holds on to everything, and holding anything aggravates. Children rub the face with their fists when coughing, have difficult dentition with intertrigo, stammer from vexation, and when addressed become melancholy and scream when touched.

Summary

Causticum Hahnemanni appears in the repertory as a remedy of carried grief and compassionate fear. Evening and twilight open up fears for others, and going to bed is dreaded; the wish for justice ranges from compassion to the idealism of rebellion. Epileptic and paralytic states frame the mind with laughing and weeping. The picture is of a person whose sympathy is great and who suffers from the harshness of the world.

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