Repertory › Remedies in the repertory

Conium maculatum (Con.)

Conium maculatum (Con.) appears in 1,099 rubrics in the Repertory. Of these, 58 are single-remedy rubrics in which only this remedy is listed, and 63 are small rubrics with no more than two other remedies. The main emphasis lies on the rubrics Children, Delusions, Sadness, Fear, Anxiety, and Ailments from, plus Indifference, Hypochondria, Hysteria, and Delirium. The picture is that of a person whose suppressed sexual desire and abstinence express themselves as sadness, anxiety, and hysteria, and who at the same time avoids people and yet cannot be alone.

Suppressed Desire and Abstinence

The clearest thread is the relation between mental state and sexual suppression. Single-remedy rubrics record: "Sadness – sexual desire – suppressed sexual desire, sadness from" and the sadness from suppressed sexual excitement. Anxiety arises from suppressed desire and from long-continued abstinence, hysteria from suppression of sexual excitement and desire, hypochondria from abstinence, and catalepsy occurs from sexual excitement. Ailments from sexual abstinence and from celibacy are listed in men, as is absence of sensuality. In women, suppression of the menses is added, with hypochondria occurring. In sum there results a family of rubrics that gains its weight only when read in context.

Menses and Company

Several single-remedy rubrics are connected with menstruation: strangers aggravate during menses, fear of strangers and of people occurs, as does fear of being alone; company aggravates. A contradiction lies in the fear of being alone with a simultaneous desire to be alone. The contradiction returns as a small rubric: fear of being alone, yet desire to be alone. Added to this is aversion to friends in pregnancy. Worries and aversion to company combine.

Coarseness and Possession

On the side of outward effect stand rubrics that do not fit the sadness. The person abuses and insults passersby in the street and strangers, is uncultivated, coarse, and boorish, haughty regarding clothing, and wants to be flattered. A single-remedy rubric describes that she regards her partner as property. Quarrelsomeness alternates with taciturnity, silent grief, and sadness. A small rubric: "Jesting – plays with everything". The feeling of being defiled plays a role.

Sadness and Indifference

The sadness is periodic, every one to two weeks, the weeping every four weeks. It occurs after breakfast, after excitement, and with heaviness in the legs, and it has religious traits: religious sadness arises from remorse, and religious melancholy likewise. Indifference shows its own timetable: in the afternoon between 3 and 6 p.m., with irritability, morose between 5 and 6 p.m., discouraged in the afternoon, and when walking in the open air. Work is shunned, especially by widows; mental exertion is disliked, and the fear of work goes so far that the person cannot be persuaded to work.

Delusions

The delusions are unusually vivid and often concern intruders: someone would enter, comes into the house at night, in through the door; the person hears someone coming into her room or sees people at the bed. The bed turns in a circle, floats, or carries dancing animals. The delusion of being a goose is listed twice: one believes oneself to be a goose and throws oneself into the water; one sees geese. Further single-remedy rubrics: one is paralyzed after a short walk, an overwhelming vertigo would come over one, the corpse of the brother and of the child. The small rubrics name fear on opening the door, a grief weighing upon her, and the delusion of being in a half-sleep.

Night, Delirium, and Children

Anxiety and fear have their time around midnight and at night; anxiety also occurs after half-waking after midnight. The delirium knocks against walls, occurs at twilight, is intermittent, and is combined with fast running. The quiet-nature rubrics: sounds, noise, and bright light are unbearable. Among the children, the wish to go to bed early in the evening is among the entries, and thriving suffers from sour eructations at night. The aversion to having children because the world is so bad arises from sadness and is assigned to this remedy alone.

Summary

In the Repertory, Con. shows a picture in which suppression of desire and abstinence are linked with sadness, anxiety, hysteria, and hypochondria. The person avoids people and yet fears being alone, is indifferent in the afternoon, anxious at night, and in the delusions surrounds herself with intruders, animals, and a revolving bed. Outwardly there are coarseness, quarrelsomeness, and possessiveness; inwardly remorse, melancholy, and a heavy, periodically recurring grief.

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