Repertory › Remedies in the repertory

Hepar sulphuris calcareum (Hep.)

Hepar sulphuris calcareum (Hep.) appears in 909 rubrics in the repertory. Of these, 42 are single-remedy rubrics in which only this remedy is listed, and 48 are small rubrics with at most two other remedies. The emphasis lies on speech, delusions, screaming, desire to kill, fire and anxiety, along with the children rubrics. Together they yield the picture of a person who is oversensitive to pain and offense, answers with threats and sudden violence, and is haunted at night by anxiety and images.

Threats and irritability

The king-pin symptom is "Threatening": the attempt to coerce others, or keep them from something, by announcing an evil. As a second king-pin symptom the repertory names irritability from pain. The two belong together, for whoever can hardly bear pain answers with attack. Anger breaks out suddenly and without cause, is directed at strangers, and appears in the single-remedy rubric as rage in which the person wants to set himself on fire.

Killing and fire

The desire to kill is broadly elaborated: an impulse arises because of a slight offense, against people who contradict, before menses; a barber wants to kill his customer, and the threat is directed at wife and children. Two single-remedy rubrics speak of the feeling that one could murder someone. Equally striking is fire: the person wants to set houses on fire, throws things into the fire, thinks and speaks of fire, and believes the neighbor's house is in flames, so that he wakes in the morning in terror. One can see in this a rage that pictures itself only in destruction.

Nocturnal anxiety

Anxiety is assigned to the night, especially the time between midnight and 3 a.m. In sleep the patient jumps out of bed and calls for help; on waking, visions and images of the dead stand before him. Fear concerns bees and wasps, becoming disfigured, and impending illness in the open air. Suicidal thoughts in the evening and the thought of setting oneself on fire belong to the same surroundings.

Speech and withdrawal

Speech rushes ahead: words tumble over one another, speech is hasty in anger, irrational in chill, and the patient does not want to listen. Opposed to this stands quiet sitting, motionless in the corner, absorbed, noticing nothing. Added to this are joylessness, aversion to amusement in children, and children who threaten their parents and show avarice, stinginess and envy. The rubric of never being cheerful or happy turns joylessness into a permanent state.

Summary

The repertory draws a pain-sensitive, irritable person whose threats and impulses to kill are to be read as defense. At night, rage and fear turn inward, into images of fire, anxiety and suicidal thoughts, and by day a joylessness remains that nothing brightens.

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