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Sepia succus (Sep.)

Sepia succus (Sep.) appears in 2,191 rubrics. Of these, 137 are single-remedy rubrics in which only this remedy is listed, and 181 are small rubrics with at most two other remedies. The emphasis is on anxiety, delusions, the children rubrics, colors, indifference, restlessness, sadness, and weeping. From these emerges the picture of a person who is carried by duties and burns out inwardly: irritable and indifferent at once, keeping at a distance and yet dependent on support, and strikingly ambivalent toward closeness, body, and sexuality.

Duty and indifference

The core lies in an indifference directed toward those nearest. The repertory lists it toward the opposite sex, toward caresses, during climacteric, during and after coition, and alternating with sadness; even affection is warded off: "Affection, tenderness – rejects affection". Where love remains, it appears as a burden, as the single-remedy rubric "Love – duty, as" records. Fitting this are the overwhelm of the housewife who can no longer cope with things, the aversion to accustomed work, and a dutiful attitude already in the child, who wants to go to school despite fever. One may see in this a person who functions as long as she must, and whose feeling gives way in the process.

Closeness and boundary

Relationships with others are a struggle for the right measure. One single-remedy rubric describes that the person "Distance and closeness – seeks the right balance between"; another records the inability to maintain one's own boundaries ("Boundaries – inability – to maintain own"). The consequences show as aversion to all people during pregnancy, as disgust at the smell of the spouse, and as aversion to the children and the husband at once. Beside this stands the need for support: the person clings to others, to persons or furniture, and being held ameliorates; with sick children she clings to them. Company is avoided by lying with eyes closed, and returns as a desire for solitude. Anger breaks out violently and gesticulating, in outbursts of rage; it strikes loved persons, the family, and men, and others are domineered over. Conspicuous besides is a sharp perception: she sees through the weaknesses of others and feels intuitively what is weak in others.

Body, gender, and sexuality

The rubrics depict a strained relation to one's own sex. Listed are rejection of one's own body, rejection of the parent of the same sex, a daughter's veneration of the father, a wish to be recognized as a woman ("Recognition – woman, as"), and the tendency to dress like a boy. Chauvinism and hatred of women in men stand beside these, as does adaptation to the world of men. Sexuality is tied to conditions: it succeeds only in the dark, only under favorable circumstances ("Sexuality, sexual activity and behavior – optimal conditions, only under") and is easily disturbed. Fear of becoming pregnant, in children an aversion to sexuality from fear of incestuous abuse, painful coition from dryness, discouragement and exhaustion after coition complete the picture.

Before the menses

A closed group of rubrics belongs to the time before the menses. The person becomes critical, scolds others, is jealous and confused, starts from sleep, and tends toward mania. Added are compulsive cleaning and fastidiousness, the cleanliness mania up to cleaning frenzy, the screams and the impulse to scream. At the same time perception changes: noises and odors irritate, and rhythm and music become hard to bear. One may see in this a concentration of the whole picture, in which the irritability otherwise lying beneath the indifference breaks through.

Anxiety, fear, and restlessness

Anxiety is richly articulated. It occurs on waking, in the evening, when going out, with a fixed gaze, when sewing, and when waiting for the urge to urinate, with thoughts of future health, and in connection with palpitation about events long past. Fear concerns driving with the husband, meeting friends, being spoken to, and being hurt while sewing. Restlessness takes hold of the body: two single-remedy rubrics record that the person screams or wants to weep from nervousness if she does not hold on to something. The presence of strangers makes restless, and weeping is often silent, especially in children: "Weeping – silent – children, in".

Colors and weather

Strikingly dense are the rubrics on colors. Dark blue, pink, violet, and purple are rejected, turquoise, light brown, and lemon yellow are longed for, and black increases excitement, anger, restlessness, and discomfort. Weather too governs mood: sultry weather aggravates sadness, cloudy and foggy weather brings on weeping, and yet "Weather – cloudy weather – loves cloudy weather".

Speech is not left untouched by this: it is complicated, or it comes slowly, pushes out single words and loses the essential, and conversely hurried with quick hand movements.

Delusions

The delusions describe lack of support: to be suspended in the air or to float, to have to walk backward because one is pursued, to have to learn everything anew, to be able to overexert easily, to understand nothing. Besides these stand fear of witches, three physicians coming, and the feeling that something alien presses on the chest from above. The ideas of being pursued and overtaxed correspond to the duty rubrics.

Summary

Sepia shows the picture of a person who is exhausted by what she has to carry and therefore shuns the closeness she also seeks. Indifference, irritability before the menses, ambivalence toward body and sex, a manifold anxiety, and a peculiar dependence on colors and weather combine into a state in which the feelings withdraw and become accessible again only under favorable conditions.

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