Comparison
Lacs
Milk contains many essential vitamins and minerals, milk is the
nourishment which newborns depend on for a healthy start in life. This is
undoubtedly truer within the animal kingdom.
The milk of the female of the species is essential to the survival of
her offspring, and ultimately to the survival of the species as a whole. Within
the animal kingdom, survival is also dependent
on the ability of the species to defend themselves from other predators,
and from mans’ need or greed, (as with dairy herds in the
and also their behaviour within their own particular societies.
In several of them there is an issue of some kind with milk. Expressed
as desire, aggravation or aversion. weakness on the physical level
Theme: Falling is found.
Lac Caninum =
Dog ForgetFUL (leaves purchases and walks away
without/makes mistakes when speaking or writing, using the wrong words and
missing letters. Over-sensitivity on all levels. Can fly into a rage with
cursing and swearing from slightest cfause. Changing sides: sore throat 1. one side,
2. otherside (Rheuma in the ankles
will be painful on alternating sides/headache and ovarian pain change sides).
LACK of confidence; body feels ugly and imagine that being insulted, heaping
the feelings of worth-lessness. Had a difficult childhood and that these
difficulties can give rise to LACK of self confidence. Delusion often
epitomises the central disturbance of the individual. Very passionate, very
lascivious. Can be quite aggressive/defensive. Feels like are going insane
yet they are very aware of it and fearful of it. Sankaran contends that the
remedy (similar to the domesticated dog) has been totally controlled and
civilised so that it has to suppress its basic animal nature and can only
express its controlled, civilised side. Fear: of snakes (delusions involving
snakes/dreams of snakes). May be of USE when a mother has lost her child
during the stage when she was still breast feeding and it has become
necessary to dry up the milk. Craving for milk (have a headache even the
thought of milk will make them sick). May have falling as causation. |
Lac Defloratum = skimmed cows
Made sick
from milk. Kent says, ‘ much can be learned by mediating upon the milk
constitution; some may think there is a difference of importance between milk
skimmed and new milk, but for all practical purposes the skimmed milk is
sufficient and cures the oversensitiveness to milk, if used in high potency’.
ChilLY and sensiTIVE to draughts (nothing will warm)/WEAK/fatigue from
slightest motion. Low nutritional status of the person; unable to assimilate
their food, will completely lose their appetite. DESpondent and will want to
know what is the quickest and quietest way to commit suicide. No fear of
death but are sure they are going to die. WEAK physically and mentally: As
with many of the other milk remedies the mind of this person has grown weak,
‘listlessness and disinclination for either bodily or mental exertion, loss
of memory. There is great sadness with this remedy, and the Lac Defloratum
patient does not want to see or speak to anybody. It is as if they cannot
bear the suffering any longer and wish to die. AverSION to milk, drinking
milk gives a sick headache.
|
Lac Felinum = cats milk, craving or aversion to
milk Fear
of falling down the stairs, without an accompanying feeling of vertigo. of
sharp or pointed objects. ‘Mental illusion that corners of furniture, or any
pointed object near her were about to run into her eyes; the symptom is
purely mental, the objects do not appear to her sight to be too close’. The
cat has an instinct to be wild and even though it has been raised as a
domestic pet, will often bring chewed up birds and other creatures into the
family home, ‘ a desire to be pampered as opposed to desire to be
independent’. This remedy may also be indicated in cases where there has been
incest or a rape. Dreams of sexual intercourse; many dreams of being pursued
for rape, even by relatives. |
a desire or aversion or an aggravation from
milk. |
Lac
Loxodonta farican, African elephant has its very existence threatened through being
maimed or killed by humans for their ivory tusks. Themes: murder and violence, terrible dreams.
‘I do not want to fight, but I have to or I
will die’. A sensation of timelessness with this remedy, a spaced out feeling, a strange sensation of
mental fuzziness. Time feels like passing too slowly
or it is distorted in some way. Trouble finding things due to the dullness on
the mental level and difficulty in thinking. I was surprised, as the elephant is an animal
that we associate with a good memory, ‘elephants
never forget’. Elephants also after one or more of their
group have been killed are able to stand on the same
spot a year later and ‘mourn’ for the dead. |
Lac lupinum.: Wolves very family orientated,
living together in packs ranging in size between 3 - 24 members/led by a
dominant pair (alpha male and female)/usually mated for life and take
responsibility for the rest of the pack. Intelligent and proud, has not
enjoyed kindness from mankind, and has been hunted, (predominantly through
fear and superstition), almost to extinction. Wants to protect children, or of feeling an
unreasonable amount of concern towards children (dreams and everyday life).
This feeling extends to wanting to help others who are less fortunate. May be critiCAL, wanting to blame others An
element of confusion , repeatedly losing their keys, wallets and purses.
Interesting that through either dreams or in reality, the provers aware of dangerous
liquids and holes in the legs of their stockings. Wolf often shot at, or else
poisoned with strychnine-treated bait. “As if dying” of feeling that one does
not have the strength to go on. Wolf has been battling for a long time
against the odds, to avoid complete extinction. |
Lac caprinum. goats’ milk, Fear of falling.
The goat is very sure-footed creature, ‘wild goats live in dry, rocky region with
little water, unlike the ibex, another member of the Capra species, they are
not marked mountain dwellers. Can climb to great heights’. Fear of being taken by surprise/FEAR of being
pointed at, with a finger or a sharp object. Response to fear is to avoid it.
Like it’s source, the goat, this person will try and find a high social
position where they have control, and ‘no-one can get me while I am up here’
kind of attitude. Become so dependent on this high position that a fear of
falling is an almost inevitable consequence. Vermeulen: ‘this falling and
degrading must be prevented. One of the means to prevent it is to be just
ahead of it by hiding, camouflaging, deluding, deceiving, telling lies, so
that you cannot be caught in the very act’. A state of indifference may
ensue, serving as a mechanism not to have to face reaching the high position,
which would ultimately lead to a fall. This remedy may also experience strong
sexual urges, but is very fearful of these, almost uncontrollable, feelings.
This leads to suppression and prudish behaviour, ‘This fear is not founded on
sympathy with your victim, or moral scruples, but only on the possible
consequences of being caught in the act and thereby losing your position’.
Consistent with the social climbing, dreams involving staircases. |
Comparison Lacs and others
Another remedy that often has
activist tendencies is
Ammonium.
Both types are prone to suffer great
indignation at injustice, and both types tend to be community-minded. Let us
look briefly at the differences between Lacs and
Ammonium salts.
1st the Lac issues of
abandonment and feeling unsupported are not prominent in Ammonium cases.
2nd Ammoniums tend to
have clearer boundaries than Lacs, both in terms of knowing when to say ‘No,’
and in terms of psychic empathy.
3rd Ammoniums do not try
to please like Lacs do. And finally, the ambivalence seen in many Lac cases,
born of a deep psychic split, is not seen in Ammonium cases.
is another remedy that is known for
its activist inclinations. Here the similarity with Lac is less. With
Causticum, advocacy is not personal. In other words, he is not fighting for
victims
because he felt a victim himself.
2nd Causticum tends to be
detached most of the time, without being split in a pathological sense. Lac, on
the other hand, is very emotional, but may become detached as a result of a
pathological split.
Push and Pull
One area where ambivalence is seen
very often in Lac cases is in romantic relationships. Only the relationship
with the mother is more fraught with danger and filled with more opportunities
for healing.
Lacs approach romantic relationships
from one of two directions.
Either extremely wary, and slow to
warm to the other person, or they jump in heedlessly. This-all or-nothing
approach is expressed at many points in the relationship, because Lac people
are pulled so strongly towards and
away from intimacy. When they finally fall, they fall hard, and then they can
switch from aloofness to being clingy and dependent.
It is common for a Lac person to
state that they have been clingy in some relationships, and aloof in others.
The middle ground of open adult relating is not so easy to maintain, since the
early dynamics of reaching out for,
or pulling away from mother, are so strong.
The Lac individual often finds
herself caring for her partner. She may have chosen a partner who needs help,
such as an alcoholic, in which case she will give and give until she feels
resentful
that she is getting little back. Or
she may adopt the role of parent to a man who is emotionally immature. By
looking after him, she wins his love, but fails to achieve true intimacy.
After taking the indicated Lac
remedy, many individuals begin to see their co-dependency more clearly, and
move toward healthier relating.
Boundaries
There are many similarities between
Lac remedies and Natriums and Ignatia.
However, one important difference is
the strength of personal boundaries. These are strong in the case of Natrium
and Ignatia, weak in Lac cases.
Again we can postulate the origins
of these weak boundaries as arising from the early experience of failure to
bond adequately to the mother. A newborn child has no sense of boundaries.
Through bonding to the mother, it
gradually learns that it is not its mother; that she is a separate entity. In the
process, the child learns that it has boundaries, which separate it from the
world,
and from other people.
When bonding to the mother is weak,
these lessons are not learned so distinctly. The child continues to try to
merge with the mother, and hence differentiation is not completed. This results
in indistinct personal boundaries in
Lac individuals (as it does in Boron individuals, who seem to go through
similar dynamics at birth).
Weakness of personal boundaries
expresses itself in several ways in Lac cases. First of all, Lac people are
extremely empathetic. They actually feel the feelings of other people, through
a kind
of psychic osmosis.
In this sense Lacs. resemble Phosphorus
and Carcinosinum.
Like the latter, many Lac people become healers and therapists, and they
struggle to keep their feelings separate from their
clients.
2nd Lac people are
co-dependent, which means they cannot separate their own responsibilities from
those of others. As a result they tend to take on too many responsibilities.
And when they
fail to fulfill a responsibility
that was not theirs in the first place, they feel guilty.
Since Lac people never feel secure
in their family of origin, it follows that they will easily feel guilty. When
you know deep down that you belong, you do not fear that by making a mistake
you will be expelled. It is this
fear that Hellinger has shown to be behind most personal guilt).
There is a lot of similarity between
Carcinosinum and Lac cases (very close to Lac felinum).
Suffice for now to note that the
principal issue for Carcinosinum is the search for Self, whereas for Lac it is
the search for connection to others.