Repertory › Remedies in the repertory

Phosphoricum acidum (Ph‑ac.)

Phosphoricum acidum (Ph‑ac.) appears in 1,198 rubrics in the Repertory. Of these, 58 are single-remedy rubrics in which only this remedy appears, and 74 are small rubrics with at most two other remedies. The emphasis lies on Children, Ailments from grief and disappointed love, Anxiety, Delusions, Fear, Dullness, Sadness, Indifference and Delirium. The picture is that of a person who, after grief, disappointment and exhaustion, becomes inwardly slowed, apathetic and empty, in whom thinking, speaking and acting become sluggish, and whose anxiety concerns above all his own recovery and death.

Grief and disappointed love

The first emphasis is grief as a cause. The rubrics on Ailments from grief (60 rubrics under "Ailments from") and those on love and grief record the physical consequences the mind brings on: headaches in the occiput and nape, at the vertex with the feeling that the brain is being crushed, chronic congestive headaches, jaundice, hair falling out, sleepiness and typhus. In disappointed love, coldness of the extremities, an almost imperceptible pulse, dry hacking cough, emaciation, weak and rapid heartbeat, sleepiness and difficult breathing stand side by side. Smaller rubrics describe the behavior: a dull brooding over the troubles of love, dwelling on past disappointments and unpleasant events, weeping at bad or sad news. Homesickness also belongs here, with sleepiness, tearfulness or quiet ill humor, in children as quiet mood. The grief is not spoken but quietly processed and carried out in the body.

Indifference and dullness

The second great trait is the loss of interest. Recorded are indifference after grief, with emaciation and weakness, after mental exertion and after masturbation, toward the affairs of life and toward adverse circumstances. A single-remedy rubric describes a disproportionate rebelling against adverse circumstances despite the apathy, a small one the feeling that everything appears dead and lifeless, another indifference with regard to the future with the feeling of being far away. Dullness arises from grief and from business worries, occurs when alone, and in men goes along with impotence. Discouragement shows in the open air and when walking, and the sadness grows stronger when walking in the open air, the longer the person walks. The emptiness has a direction: it grows with the movement outward and the length of the way.

Slowed thinking and speaking

An unusually dense group concerns answers and thoughts. Recorded are delayed answering, slow answering with stupefaction, reluctant, short and incoherent answering, inappropriate answers and the inability to find the words when answering. Memory fails for the names of family members, thoughts vanish in the morning, with mental exhaustion ideas are lacking, and mental exertion is injurious in the morning and after sexual excesses. When reading, thoughts crowd in and whirl confusedly, as do fancies and excitement; reading and studying produce heaviness in the head and limbs. An aversion to thinking and thoughtless staring in the morning round out the picture. It is evidently thinking itself that flags, and at the same time the thoughts flow uncontrolled.

Exhaustion from overexertion

As causes of the exhaustion, the Repertory names worries, excessive study and sexual excesses, but also suppression of diarrhea. Mental exhaustion is followed by physical weakness; small rubrics record the feeling of limpness, slow walking, inability to work in the morning and after sexual excesses, weakness of children after rapid growth, and fatigue after school. The feeling of guilt after masturbation occurs as a tormenting feeling, as does anxiety of conscience. Confusion arises as if from sexual excesses. The remedy thus shows a close linkage of moral burden, overexertion and loss of strength.

Anxiety and fear of death

Anxiety (59 rubrics) concerns in particular health and recovery. Single-remedy rubrics describe anxiety about one's own health with regard to recovery, anxiety with confusion and fogginess in typhus, anxiety with cough with frothy bright red blood, and anxiety with profuse night sweat. Smaller rubrics link anxiety with despair of recovery and with the compulsion to lie down. Fear of death occurs with pressure in the hypogastrium, in smallpox and when sitting; further, the fear of being touched on sore, painful parts of the body, and the sudden fear of urinating. Easy fright leads to starting as if the person were falling from a height into water, worse at night. The anxiety is closely tied to the body, and doubt about one's own recovery is the core.

Delirium and states of consciousness

The delirium (30 rubrics) is quiet, soft and slow: the person mutters or whispers slowly, is mild with prostration in Bright's disease, apathetic, with stupefaction and heaviness in the head, or was delirious while sitting. Whoever is aroused is at once fully conscious, as a single-remedy rubric records. Unconsciousness occurs in the morning when the person is alone, or as somnolence without snoring with closed eyes. The insanity goes along with distortion of the mouth. Rare but noteworthy are the rubrics on unconscious and senseless dancing. Delirium and stupefaction are here not wild but quiet.

Delusions and sensitiveness

Among the delusions are a few peculiar particulars: the bed has overturned and the person stands on her head, she must look out from under her own forehead, she hears the clock strike or objects moving, and she sees numbers, signs and figures. The sensitiveness is directed to music: every tone produces stitching in the ear and violent headache. Alongside stand reproaching others in the morning and in the late afternoon at 4 p.m., wildness from vexation and a pubertal sullenness.

Summary

Phosphoricum acidum stands in the Repertory for the pattern of exhaustion after grief. Disappointed love, homesickness, worries and overexertion lead to indifference, dullness and slowed speech; thoughts vanish or crowd in, and the body answers with weakness, emaciation and heart complaints. The anxiety concerns recovery and death, the delirium remains quiet. The picture is that of a person who does not rebel but runs empty.

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