Repertory › Remedies in the repertory

Crocus sativus (Croc.)

Crocus sativus (Croc.) appears in 571 rubrics in the Repertory. Of these, 28 are single-remedy rubrics in which only this remedy is listed, and 37 are small rubrics with no more than two other remedies. The main emphasis lies on laughing, anger, singing, delusions, and the alternation between violence and tenderness, plus insanity, oversensitiveness, and irritability. The picture is that of a person whose mood jumps from one pole to the other at the shortest intervals, without either pole gaining lasting dominance.

Laughing

Laughing, with 27 rubrics, is the densest group of the remedy, and twelve of them are specific. It is inappropriate and unseemly (two single-remedy rubrics), silly and foolish, in children on every occasion, roaring, screaming, and shrieking. It is quickly followed by weeping: "Laughing – weeping – laughing quickly followed by weeping". It also alternates with tenderness and loving behavior, with violence and vehemence, with ill humor and peevishness. Cheerfulness belongs to this pattern as well: joyful and cheerful alternates with violence and vehemence, and a small rubric names loquacity as witty and brilliant.

Anger and Alternation

Anger rarely occurs alone, but almost always in pairings. The single-remedy rubrics list it alternating with loving behavior, with tenderness, with singing, and together with laughing. One rubric says "Rage, fury, frenzy – alternating with – loving mood"; a small rubric names the alternation with calmness. Anger is followed by remorse, a connection the small rubrics capture twice. Vehemence likewise alternates with mildness, gentleness, cheerfulness, and laughing. The morose also has its opposite poles: single-remedy rubrics describe the alternation with singing and with embracing everyone. The characteristic picture is a person who rages at one moment and embraces everyone the next.

Singing and Music

Singing links the remedy with mood. Singing alternates with quarrelsomeness, with anger, and with vexation and annoyance; quarrelsomeness conversely alternates with singing. Singing can occur involuntarily: a single-remedy rubric records that the person sings "as soon as she/he hears the first note sung"; another names involuntary singing along when someone else sings. Cheerful music and song cause oversensitiveness. Fitting to this are a good, active memory for music and dancing in chorea.

Delusions and Intoxication

The delusions are unusual in detail. Two rubrics concern feeling intoxicated: the person feels intoxicated in the room but not in the open air, as the single-remedy rubrics "Intoxicated, drunk – room, in, but not in open air" and the corresponding delusion state. Added to these are the delusion of being unable to smell, the idea of animals in the abdomen, and the delusion that thoughts suddenly vanish. A single-remedy rubric records that external pressure ameliorates, another knows the desire to bite in the evening.

Insanity and Violence

Insanity appears in mild form and as a consequence of violent triggers: from joy with headache, from unbearable pain in the head, in inflammation of the eyes. Mania and wildness are assigned to the evening, as is the changeable, inconstant mood. Rage, fury, and frenzy, with thirteen rubrics, counts among the larger groups. Irritability alternates with loving behavior, with tenderness, and with singing. A single-remedy rubric on mildness in the evening shows that the evening dissolves the boundaries between moods.

Fear and Death

Fear plays a subordinate role. A single-remedy rubric names fear of death with nosebleed, and anguish in metrorrhagia is likewise assigned to this remedy alone. The rubric on Children (34) is reflected mainly in laughing.

Summary

In the Repertory, Croc. shows a mental state without a lasting center. Laughing, anger, singing, tenderness, and peevishness follow one another and merge into each other, so quickly that the opposite poles often stand in the same rubric. Anger is followed by remorse, laughing by weeping, rage by embracing. Added to these are an oversensitiveness to singing and music, an involuntary urge to sing along, and a pronounced evening aggravation of excitement. The picture is that of a changeable, violent, and at the same time tender person.

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