Repertory › Remedies in the repertory

Lachesis muta (Lach.)

Lachesis muta (Lach.) appears in 2,600 rubrics in the Repertory. Of these, 160 are single-remedy rubrics in which only this remedy is listed, and 250 are small rubrics with at most two other remedies. The emphasis lies on Delusions, Delirium, Jealousy, Fear, Loquacity and Speech, as well as on Children. From these rubrics emerges the picture of a person with heightened mental activity who talks, observes and desires, believes herself persecuted and controlled, and tends toward extremes in everything: in working, in loving and in suspicion.

The excess of mind

The basic trait is superabundance. The rubrics speak of a person who works eighteen to twenty hours a day, becomes especially work-mad in the evening and before the menses, and finds work easy at night: "Working – works – 18 – 20 hours a day". He associates a great deal, thinks aloud, discusses through the night and constantly analyzes himself. Comprehension is quick, even of social structures, with accurate judgment. One single-remedy rubric ascribes to the mental activity an almost prophetic perception, another records that the person feels what the other thinks and says it aloud. In fever he thinks faster than ever before; after mental exertion follow loquacity, delirium and sleeplessness.

Speech without pause

Speech is the valve. Loquacity is richly articulated: it comes in elegant expressions, after mental exertion, with ecstasy, with sleepiness and before midnight; it wanders from one subject to another and flows effortlessly. Here alone stands: "Loquacity, talkativeness – elegant expressions, in". The speaker does not let others finish, speaks with a hiss or drops the endings of words while speaking. Threatening also has its rubric, the speech is threatening, and the talk can be tinged with eroticism.

Jealousy and suspicion

Jealousy is the most finely drawn emotion. It accuses the spouse of infidelity, occurs in women and in men, and expresses itself in rage with incoherent talk, in abuse with unchaste expressions, and in catalepsy. Only this remedy links it with terrible imaginings: "Jealousy – terrible imaginings, with". Mockery and satire can also combine with it, and the person tears out her hair from jealousy. Disappointed love leads to raving and to amenorrhea. Suspicion looks around in all directions; the delusion of being spied upon is listed only here.

Persecution, abandonment and death

The delusions are numerous and colored by threat. The bed sinks with the person, "Delusions – bed – sinking – she would sink – with the bed", ghosts stand behind her, thieves force her to flee through the window, friends talk about her. In the morning on waking the person is forsaken or without friends. She believes she will be put into an asylum, has been robbed, is dead, and that preparations are being made for her funeral. The heart is said to hang on a thread that breaks with every beat. Visions of colored clouds also belong here.

Spell, desire and malice

A trait of its own lies in the relationship to others. One single-remedy rubric describes that the person draws people under her spell, "Spell – draws people under her". Others call her bewitching; she takes possession of others and feels herself enchanted, unable to break the spell. Eroticism belongs to it, as lasciviousness, masochism, wet kisses and erotic speech, at times before convulsions and followed by epilepsy. Alongside stand malice in dreams, the impulse to poison someone, and the tendency to slander. The person wants to be admired rather than loved.

Cycle, climacteric and intoxication

The pattern is bound to hormonal phases of life. Before the menses there occur suicidal tendency, desire to kill, abusing, alcoholism, running and work-mania; in the climacteric, fits of rage, mania, suspicion and forgetfulness are added. Intoxication and delirium tremens are richly represented, as are bipolar disorders with shopping sprees. In the alcoholic there are quarrelsomeness, fear, weeping and sentimentality.

Children and religion

The rubrics for children continue the trait: children who manipulate, even as infants, who control themselves, who grasp quickly and speak precociously. Adolescents read the Bible a great deal, pray and kneel; in religious mania, Bible passages are taken literally. A withdrawal shows itself as weeping at gentle poetry and at anecdotes.

Fear, foreboding and body

Fear bears a religious and a gloomy face. Recorded are religious monomania, evil forebodings, the feeling that something evil has happened, and persistent thoughts of evil. The fear of falling asleep grows with increasing pains; the anxiety about waking concerns the idea of never waking up again. The body answers to the mind: heat aggravates, as do warm baths and warm applications, and the dullness improves as soon as the feet become warm in a warm room. Rain and the patter of rain ameliorate. The person is sensitive to movements and to footsteps in the room. In addition there is the desire to pull and tear at her own collar.

Steadfastness and disintegration

Alongside the excess stands a trait of endurance and of loss. The person holds out to the limit, cannot be corrupted and remains persevering at work. At the same time the Repertory describes chaotic behavior that finishes nothing in an orderly way, inhibitions, a chronic apathy and a forgetfulness that affects everything that happened in the last six years. In old age the memory for recent events fades. The husband gives the wife and the son no presents. These are single traits that together make up a figure who accomplishes much and remains scant toward herself.

Summary

In the Repertory Lachesis appears as a remedy of intensification: of the mind, of speech, of desire and of suspicion. The person moves between elation and melancholy, ecstasy and violence, spell and persecution, and expects everywhere that others will grasp at her. Where the balance does not hold, this expresses itself in night, intoxication and rage.

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