[Patricia
Haetherly]
Any discussion on
"Milk" must acknowledge its role in providing inner nourishment on a
physical and psychological level. As a symbol of immortality, it may be found in
different cultures and literary traditions
(Celts/Christians/Greeks/Hindus/followers of Islam). The Israelites searched
for the
Actually, to dream of
milk is understood, in dream symbology, to be a very positive message from
one's unconscious. And while it may suggest a need for deep and fundamental
nourishment, it infers that it is available. In particular, a dream of breastfeeding may be about nourishing the
needy inner child or it may be about offering spiritual inspiration to others.
On the other hand, to dream of asking for or drinking milk, suggests a need for
spiritual sustenance. In
this regard, I find it intriguing that Sankaran's proving elicited the rubric: [Dream: mother asking for milk]
as it implies that the traditional giver of nourishment is physically and
psychologically bereft.
It's what I call the
Curse of Eve. the Catch-22 situation that perpetuates in "developed" cultures
as women struggle to balance what they give to their offspring against what
they give to themselves.
Mammals are primed to
nourish their offspring ex-utero with a substance that is designed in a
species-specific way to complete the cycle of growth and development that was
initially governed
by the placenta.
(provings of Placenta and Lac Maternum suggests that they are
similar in many aspects and that is not surprising as the nourishment
afforded by the placenta
is via maternal red blood cells and that of colostrum is via maternal white
blood cells.)
However, interesting as
that may be, it is the business of Milk that is under discussion, and the role
that female mammals play in providing for the next generation. Each mammal's
milk is unique unto itself within the broader confines of being a substance
that contains water; amino acids (protein); carbohydrate (lactose); fat and
minerals (ash). This situation of species-specificity is Nature's way of
ensuring that each mammal is initially nourished
with a substance that
uniquely gives it an optimum start in Life. For instance seal's milk is very
high in protein and fat. This is to ensure that the calf grows quickly and is
able to put down fat to protect it against its hostile environment as well as to
be able to sustain itself for days at a time while the mother goes off to feed
herself. Kangaroo milk is low in solids and has a very high water content which
is consistent with the harsh dry conditions of
its habitat. Human milk,
on the other hand is low in protein (we grow slowly) and high in lactose as
lactose is a prime promoter of brain growth.
Humans are primates and
there is good correspondence between the profiles of the human, baboon, monkey
and orang-utan milks. Generally primates lactate for 6x the gestation rate.
In primitive cultures
females feed their infants for many years and will even kill a newborn if they
accidentally reproduce again while they are still lactating. Harsh as this may
seem, it is
a definitive statement
regarding the crucial role that human milk plays in sustaining an infant. When
there is no way a mother can reach for a tin of formula, her options are
limited.
In fact, UNESCO tells us
that over a million babies die each year due to lack of breast milk. In
situations where mothers think that they are choosing the sophisticated or
"scientific" option, the realities of lack of clean water; poor
sanitation and insufficient funds to buy formula and pay for heating soon hit
home and babies die of malnutrition or infection.
This is a shame as the
milk of a mother in a personally-deprived situation differs but little from
that of her more well-fed sister. Milk is a universal substance with much
consistency with respect to all constituents across all races and geographical
areas; and while diet may affect levels of fat and some vitamins and minerals,
it does not affect the whey component (= 60%
of the protein in mature human milk [90% of colostrum]). This
contains a wealth of components which are never found on the side of a tin of formula.
Apart from the full
complement of vitamins, minerals (incl. trace elements) and fatty acids (of
which the short chain ones promote gut closure and therefore help protect
against allergies and Giardia and the long chain ones optimise CNS development)
human milk is unique in that it also contains:
a range of antioxidants
two specialist proteins
(al-antipripsin and a2-macroglobulin protein) which offer protection against
Influenza; Parainfluenza and Rotavirus
its very own Bifidus
factor which enhances proliferation of lactobacilli thereby inhibiting some E.
coli and Enterobacteriaceae including shigella and salmonella
bile salt-stimulated
lipase which generates fatty acids and monoglycerides that inactivate
Giardia Lamblia,
Entamoeba histolytica & Trichomonas vaginalis complement; which protects
against E. coli
a range of cytokines
which initiate and stimulate host defence; prevent auto-immunity; have
anti-inflammatory effects on the upper respiratory and GIT and stimulate
development of the digestive system
20 different enzymes
which perform various functions including bio-synthesis and preservation of
milk components in the mammary gland/a transport and anti-infective role and
promoting digestive function in the neonate epidermal growth factor which
promotes increased growth and maturation of the foetal pulmonary epithelium;
stimulates ornithine decarboxylase activity and DNA synthesis in the digestive
tract and accelerates the healing of wounds (incl. abraded nipples)
gangliosides which are
thought to help protect the neonate from toxin-induced diarrhoea (E.coli and V.
cholerae).
immunoglobulins of which
more than 30 have been identified. 18 from maternal serum, the rest are found
exclusively in the milk and slgA (which is found in levels 5x
that of maternal serum)
is the most important of these. Immunoglobulins protect mucosa and have
bacterial and viral neutralising capacity. SlgA is known to protect against:
Enteroviruses
[Poliovirus types 1, 2, 3; Coxsackievirus types A9, B3, B5; Echovirus types 6
& 9J; Herpes virus [Cytomegalovirus; Herpes simplex]; Semliki forest virus;
Respiratory syncytial
virus; Rubella; Reovirus type 3 and Rotavirus. IgM and IgG protect against
Respiratory syncytial virus and Rubella a range of hormones that perform a
variety of functions
interferon which also
has antiviral activity
interleukins which are a
sub-group of cytokines which augment the newborn's immune system by increasing
antibody production (especially IgA); enhancing phagocytosis;
activating T cells and
increasing al-antitrypsin production by mononuclear phagocytes
lactoferrin which binds
iron and therefore inhibits host-pathogen interactions
lactoperoxidase which
destroys streptococci and enteric bacteria
•
lymphocytes of which human milk contains both the T (thymus) and B (bursa)
types. These lymphocytes transfer long-lasting maternal antibodies to the
infant; and synthesise slgA antibodies in the breast
•
lysozyme which lyses bacteria through destruction of the cell wall. It is found
in large quantities in the stool of breastfed babies and is thought, therefore,
to affect gut flora
•
macrophages which synthesise complement, lactoferrin and lysozyme and perform a
variety of other functions including phagocytosis of fungi and bacteria
•
nucleotides which constitute 15-20% of the non-protein nitrogen in human milk.
Thought to influence the immune system; iron absorption; intestinal flora;
plasma lipoproteins and growth of intestinal and hepatic cells
• oligosaccharides
of which more than 80 have been identified. They inhibit the binding of
enteropathogens to their host receptors
Milk substitutes and health risks
Furthermore, when
assessing the role that human milk plays in optimising physical maturation,
consideration needs also to be given to the range of known disadvantages that
beset the Infant raised on a breastmilk substitute. Not only does he miss out
on all the unique benefits listed above; his gut flora is different from that
of his breastfed friend, and he may have to deal with:
too much
aluminium
too much
manganese
too much
lead
too much
cadmium
too much
iron
transgenic
soy and yeast
traces of
algae and fungi used to manufacture the long chain polyunsaturated fatty acids
found in tins of a
"gold" standard and selected by well-meaning mothers who want what's
best for their infants
hexane used to produce
the above Enterobacter Sakazakii (found in up to 14% of tins of formula and the
reason why maternity wards stock only ready-made formulas);
tins are banned from
hospitals because of this bacteria
Added to this is the
fact that the lipids in formula are included according to availability and
price. Perusal of a range of tins of formula will identify a variety of sources
including:
coconut;
corn; "marine oils" [i.e. genetically engineered from algae]; palm
olein; soy lecithin and vegetable (probably safflower).
Interestingly,
research published in 2003' suggests that healthy term infants fed a formula
containing palm oil as the predominant oil in the fat blend had significant
lower bone mineral content and bone mineral density
than
those fed formula without palm oil (specifically: safflower; coconut and soy).
Therefore, the inclusion of palm oil in infant formula at levels needed to
provide a fatty acid profile similar to that of human milk, may
lead to
lower bone mineralisation as it has been shown to lower calcium and fat
absorption.
However it is their role
in potentiating central nervous system development that best defines the lipids
in milk; and it's a well-established fact that breastfeeding increases
intelligence (look at all the "memory deficient" rubrics in the Lacs). Although this comes
about largely due to the high amounts of lactose in human milk, it is also due
to the long-chain PUFAs which abound in human milk when mothers simply include
plenty of seafoods in their diet.
Milk
Matters
Humans are the only
mammals on the planet who habitually drink the milk of other species.
It is understood in
veterinary circles that feeding non-species-specific milk to an animal causes
apnoeic episodes. This happens to the Calc-p.
infant when he "refuses mother's milk".
He's simply not able to
breathe easily at the breast because of aggravation from bovine fragments in
his mother's milk. No amount of Calc-p.
will remedy this unless the maintaining cause (dairy in the maternal
diet) is removed.
The irony in this
situation is that infants are often weaned in such instances and then are at an
increased risk in the long term of:
Obesity (artificially
fed infants consume 30.000 more calories than breastfed babies in the first 8
months). The obesity issue is, however, complicated by the fact that research
conducted in the 70’s demonstrated that the DPT vaccination interferes with
insulin metabolism
Crohn's disease
Ulcerative
colitis
Coeliac
disease
Cardiovascular
disease
Type 2
diabetes
In the short term there
is an increased risk of SIDS as well as:
NEC
(Necrotising Entero-colitis) and late onset sepsis if you're a preterm infant
Bacterial
meningitis (in the NICU [Neonatal Intensive Care Unit] it's the Tubercular
miasm infants who have bleeding into the brain when they're given "human
milk fortifier" [= cow's milk formula])
Botulism
Diarrhoea
Upper
respiratory tract infections and otitis media
Urinary tract
infections
Added is an increased
risk of type 1 diabetes (because the majority of breastmilk substitutes are
based on cow's milk; the bovine Lacs have
a long history in treating diabetes); allergies and asthma.
[Philip M. Bailey]
Until quite recently
remedies made from milk occupied a relatively small niche in our materia medica, and it was only
Lac caninum
that was familiar to most homeopaths. This has changed markedly over the past
20 years, thanks to the contributions of homeopaths (Nancy Herrick/Rajan Sankaran), who undertook provings of animal milks. We now have a whole family of
remedies derived from human and animal milks, and a growing understanding of
their common and their individual qualities. It has become clear that these
remedies are very deep acting when used constitutionally, since they address
themselves to the earliest of traumas, the failure to bond adequately with the
mother at birth.
My experience using Lac
remedies has shown me that it is not the birth trauma that produces a Lac
picture constitutionally. If that were the case, we would only need one
Lac remedy. Rather,
particular Lac remedies run in families, and are inherited genetically. When a
baby is born with a Lac constitution, it is more liable to have trouble
forming a bond with its
mother for two reasons. Firstly, its mother often has a Lac constitution, and
therefore is intrinsically at a disadvantage with regard to forming a bond with
her child. And secondly, the child itself, resonating constitutionally to a Lac
frequency, is less able to bond fully.
In some cases both
mother and child have the same Lac constitution, but the clinical picture is
mild. In other words, the mother-child bond was established relatively
normally, and the child grew up expressing the psychological and physical
profile of a Lac remedy, but in its more benign form. In other cases, bonding
was severely compromised, and in these cases the clinical pictures of both
mother and the child express the more pathological degrees of Lac symptomatology.
Let us now consider the
general themes that are encountered in Lac remedies.
Missing
Foundation
Breast milk is our first
sustenance. It provides all the physical nourishment we require and forms the
basis for psychic bonding with our mother. This bonding is the foundation for
our psychological development as a separate being. Through bonding to our
mother we continue to be protected, as we were in the womb. We are still one
with our mother, and
hence safe. Only after bonding has successfully been established, can we begin
to separate safely, to experience ourselves as separate entities, yet connected
to mother, and hence to the world.
In Lac cases bonding was
never fully established with the mother. This missing foundation underlies all
the various dynamics that typify the Lac state.
There are many reasons
why bonding may have been unsuccessful. One common reason is that the mother
was in a Lac state, and hence was not available emotionally.
Lac mothers very often
give birth to Lac children. If the mother did not bond with her mother, she
cannot bond with her child. In such cases the mother may be aware of a profound
distance between herself and her child.
Often love will grow in
time, but the child’s psychological foundations have already been severely
affected.
There may be various
physical reasons why the mother cannot bond with the child. She may be severely
ill after giving birth, and hence not available energetically. She may have
post-natal depression. Or the child may be premature, or so delicate that she
cannot be nursed by her mother, and must lie alone in an incubator. All these
scenarios are
encountered in Lac cases.
Very often in Lac cases
there is a history of separation from the mother during the first two years of
life. This can weaken an already shaky bond with the mother, and further
threaten the individual’s sense of personal security.
Equally common is a
history of difficulties in breastfeeding. It does not seem to matter whether
the difficulties appeared to come from the mother (= lack of milk) or from the
child (poor attachment to the breast).
Ambivalence
When a baby is born, it
instinctively moves towards the mother’s breast. This reaching out towards the
mother is the first movement of the child towards a specific goal, and it lays
the foundation for healthy children.
connections with other
people later in life. When this first movement is interrupted, the individual
grows up not knowing how to connect with other people.
Famous studies of new
born babies showed that when their mother did not respond to their reaching
out, they tried again and again to reach her.
After several attempts fail
to elicit a response, the baby stops reaching out, and withdraws. This
withdrawal from contact is a kind of giving up, and it is seen in every
Lac case.
Lac individuals lack
prior experience of reliable close connection. Rather, they have the early imprint
of failing to connect with mother. The initial healthy reaching out movement
toward the other was interrupted.
As a consequence, when
they are faced with the possibility of relationship later in life, they cannot
reach out and trust that the bond will be reliable. That would only open the
original wound. If they do manage to open up and form a close bond with
another, the loss of such a bond feels absolutely devastating. It repeats the original
traumatic experience after birth, of losing the mother, who is everything.
A baby who has no
contact with another person becomes autistic.
In Lac cases contact is
there, but bonding is incomplete. The result is a person who is constantly in a
dilemma - should I try again to connect
(Gestures, makes: grasping
or reaching at something – Millenium), or should I
protect myself? This is a fundamental dynamic in Lac cases. The person feels
torn between the two movements – towards or away. Yes or No. As a result,
ambivalence is a key symptom in most Lac
cases.
The original ambivalence
towards attempts at connection continues later in life, whenever a connection
to another person is considered. And this basic ambivalence spreads out, to
cover reactions toward many things. Should I move towards Life or Death? Towards
Expression or Silence? Towards Independence or Connectedness? Towards
Feeling, or Neutrality?
It is the basis of the well-known Lac tendency to feel pulled between looking
after self, and connecting to others.
Paradise
Lost
A newborn child has just
emerged from the paradise of the womb, where it felt at one with its
environment. The movement towards Mother is a movement toward safety, a
continuation of connectedness. When this is not possible, the child tries to
retreat back into the womb. It curls up and withdraws its senses. In Lac people
we see an attempt to withdraw away from life, back into the paradise of the
womb, or even the spiritual world, whence came the child’s soul.
Two manifestations of
this attempt are narcotic use, and spiritual identification. In both cases, the
individual seeks to return to a prenatal feeling of oneness.
Most Lac cases are not
addicted to narcotics. The spiritual realm is more often chosen as a haven from
the cold isolation felt in this world. Most Lac individuals are spiritual
people, in both senses of the word. They have some experience of higher states
of consciousness, and they identify with philosophies which emphasize spiritual
realities.
Frequently, they
identify with New Age philosophy, a kind of user friendly religion, which
emphasizes that you are Spirit, and all things are possible. In so doing, the
Lac individual maintains
the split that occurred at birth, between Heaven and Earth. In effect, she says
‘No thanks’ to life on Earth. Many individuals who responded deeply to a Lac remedy
have commented, ‘I never really fully committed to being here on Earth.’
This denial of
Earth-based reality is common in Lac cases. They appear as ‘space-cadets,’ more
interested in your Sun-sign than in a real connection; more keen to heal the
planet’s Heart chakra, than to connect with their own injured feelings. And
their original retreat to a prior paradise was a desperate one, hence this
desperation can
be seen in the zealous
manner in which Lac individuals express their spirituality. If you affirm their
attachment to Spirit, they can feel secure. If you do not, they begin to doubt
it, and then they may have to feel the terrible loneliness of the newborn
child, disconnected from its mother. Repeating the mantra, ‘I am surrounded by
white light’ is
a poor substitute for
early maternal bonding.
Alone
and Co-dependent
Having failed to bond
completely with Mother, the Lac child feels very alone, and this feeling never
leaves her. She will feel alone for the rest of her life, unless she
experiences profound healing. Even if she is in a long-term, committed
relationship, she is liable to feel alone, and most Lac individuals find it
hard to maintain such
relationships.
Lac cases often report
that they feel cut off from the world, alone and unsupported. (Lac clients very
often use the word ‘unsupported’ in their histories).
Just as the newborn
defended itself by withdrawing, so the Lac individual tends to isolate himself,
not daring to feel the devastation of further failures at reaching out.
Like Natrium,
he becomes good at caring for others, whilst being unable to care for himself.
The Lac child cannot
bear to simply lose the mother. Instead, he seeks to win her love.
Lac cases typically
report that they tried as children to please their mother, and as adults they
continue to try. They were ‘good’ children, just like Nat-m. , helpful and
responsible. Very often they were the eldest child, helping mother by
shouldering some of her responsibilities towards the other children. They thus
became like little adults. Later, they continue to take responsibility for
other people, and feel guilty when they don’t.
In this sense Lac cases
have unclear boundaries.
Mother-Child
There is a mother –
child dynamic that is very typical in Lac cases. The patient says that as a
child they looked after their mother.
In other words, the
roles were reversed. I have had Lac children complain to me that their mother
behaves like a child. They were referring to the mother’s dependency, and her
emotional immaturity.
Lac constitutions, like
other constitutions, run in families. Very often the mother and the child both
respond to the same Lac remedy. In such cases it is common for the mother to
use emotional blackmail to maintain the care she gets from her child. She may
say, ‘You are killing me’ when the daughter comes home late from a night out,
and the daughter, who has grown up hearing how much her mother has sacrificed
for her, feels very guilty. Here both mother and daughter are acting out Lac programmes.
The daughter is looking
after her mother, in order to win her love. The mother uses her daughter for
support, since she feels so alone and unsupported. During consultations Lac mothers
will often bring a child in for support. Even though the child is only ten
years old, he will correct his mother’s mistakes, point out symptoms his mother
has
forgotten, and hug his
mother when she cries. The mother appears to have no idea that this
relationship is inappropriate. This dynamic is especially seen in one-parent
families, which are surprisingly common when the mother is a Lac individual.
As the Lac child of a Lac
mother grows up, he begins to resent the manipulation that he senses his mother
is using. He is used as a confidant and partner by his mother, and this puts
enormous pressure on him. By the time he is a teenager, he is liable to have
developed a lot of anger towards his mother, an anger that usually survives
well into
adulthood. When a case
revolves around anger towards the mother, a Lac remedy is often indicated. With
regard to Lac mothers, two very different dynamics are
typically seen. One is
the mother who could not bond with her child, and remains detached. She may do
her best to be a good mother, but she knows she does not feel the closeness to
her child that she should. She may favour another child, or even be actively
unkind toward the child she could not bond with. In the latter case, it is as
if she took out on the child all the anger she felt when she, as a child, was
rejected by her mother.
The other common Lac dynamic
is the Lac mother who is totally dependent upon her child for love and
emotional security. Since she could not find it from her mother, she seeks it
in her child. Here is a being who needs her so much that she can rely on the
connection.
In these cases the roles
are reversed, and the child grows up looking after the mother. (In practice, we
also see a mixed picture, where the mother is cool to the child, yet still
manages to rely on the child and be looked after by her).
Mother and child themes
run through Lac cases in many ways.
A Lac patient will often
dream of children in danger, and sometimes of saving such children.
In life many Lac people
are staunch advocates for mothers and children, often in professional roles. This
advocacy is seen especially often in Lac humanum cases.
Where
is the Man?
Single-parent families
are extraordinarily common in Lac households. The majority of the Lac mothers I
have treated were single mothers.
I have wondered why this
is so, and come to the following hypotheses.
~ The Lac woman does not
trust love. In a relationship with a man this mistrust has the effect of
pushing the man away. Subconsciously, the Lac mother feels safe with her
children, but not with her husband.
~ The Lac mother
develops such a dependency on her child that she excludes her partner. This can
contribute to a relationship break-up.
~ Lac people tend to be
co-dependent. Thus a Lac woman may attract a man who needs looking after,
become pregnant, and then realize she cannot be a mother to the man as well as
the child.
~ Lac women are less
likely than most to be willing to have an abortion after an unplanned
pregnancy. This may be in part due to emotional sensitivity, and also the fact
that they may have dreamt of the close contact they would enjoy with their
child.
Even when the Lac mother
stays with her partner, there is a tendency for her to push him out of the
picture.
Lac clients often report
that their father was in the background and the mother was dominant at home.
Sometimes the Lac mother is so dependent upon her child for emotional support
that she breast-feeds until the child is three or four, and keeps her in the
bed with her at night. This has the effect of pushing the father away. He
cannot compete with this intense mother-child bond, and so he withdraws. The Lac
child grows up feeling that her father in ineffectual, and later she tends to
see all men in this light.
When the Lac child grows
up without the strong presence of a father, she tends to identify with her
mother. This often involves taking on her mother’s resentment towards men. But
where does this resentment come from? Again, there are several possible
origins.
~ The mother resents her
own father, because he did not protect her from her needy mother.
~ The mother resents her
husband, because she feels unsupported by him.
~ A man or men have
actively been cruel to her.
Whatever the dynamics,
many Lac women are distrustful of men, and some are overtly hostile. The
hostility expressed towards men in the past by aspects of the Feminist movement
can be due, to some extent, to this hostility that many Lac women feel (often unconsciously)
towards men.
Lac women have a strong
tendency to advocate for the right so f women and children, and this has led to
many of them being involved previously in the Feminist movement.
Victim-Consciousness
In my experience, the
single most characteristic feature of most Lac cases is the way they feel that
they are a victim. They tend to express helplessness, and to complain about how
unfairly others have treated them. Indeed, they express a lot of indignation
about this. As long as they remain caught in this victim-consciousness, they
are
unable to move forward
in life. Taking the correct Lac remedy can often do a lot to break this
tendency. Victim-consciousness is a defence mechanism which the
Lac individual uses to
avoid feeling his own feelings of hurt and helplessness. When the small child
feels rejected by his mother, there is a tendency for him to blame himself. Low
self-esteem and self-criticism are features common to all Lac remedies. In
order to protect himself, he turns the blame onto his mother, and becomes her
victim. This first defence is repeated with other people later on, becoming a
pattern. Whenever the Lac person feels rejected, he reacts with anger and indignation,
and with blame. This is less painful than feeling the hurt which lies beneath.
Lac cases actually use
the word ‘victim’ frequently during the consultation. They may be referring to
themselves, but just as often they project victimhood onto others. One woman
who responded well to Lac felinum, referred to her
partner as a victim, and said he was like a starving man at a banquet, who
could not see the food in front
of him. She was
describing herself precisely. Another word which Lac cases use over and over is
‘ Abuse’. It matters not whether actual abuse occurred, or how serious it was.
It is the frequency of use of the word which stands out in Lac cases,
irrespective of the facts.
Lac people feel that
they have been abused, because they did not feel protected by their mother. Of
course, when the mother-child bond is weak, actual abuse is more likely to
happen. It is very common for Lac individuals to say that they were their
mother’s scapegoat or whipping boy and in some cases this appears to be true.
Unsupported
Equally common is the
complaint from a Lac individual that they have no support. They feel
unsupported by their parents, unsupported by their friends, unsupported by
their work colleagues. Sometimes this is true, because Lac people, by pulling
away from others, cut off their own support systems.
One highly
characteristic feature of Lac cases is the way they cut themselves off from
their own family of origin. So often they refuse to have contact, citing
terrible treatment they have received from the whole family. This is usually
more about the perception of the Lac individual. She does not trust love, and
will push it away rather
than risk being hurt
again. After taking a Lac remedy, many people re-establish contact with their
family, and no longer have to be on guard to make sure they are not emotionally
abused.
Community
Awareness and Advocacy
Every wound has within
it the seeds of its own healing. In Lac cases, the wound of abandonment leads
the Lac individual to seek connection with the community as a whole. Unable to
nurture herself with one-to-one contacts, she develops an interest in community
affairs, and will often find a job working for community organizations.
In fact, she is often
enthusiastic about community to the point of being zealous. The community
replaces her own family, and her fierce dedication to community reflects how
much she needs this connection. In Lac consultations the word ‘community’ is
often spoken many times by the client.
Community involvement
offers the Lac individual two means of overcoming his sense of isolation.
Firstly, by helping the community he feels more worthy, and also more needed.
And secondly, by living in close interaction with the local community, he no
longer feels so alone. Part of Lac’s attraction to
community work is his need to help
others. This is a
key-note feature of Lac cases. They offer the support that they themselves wish
to receive. For the Lac individual, the community takes the place of the
family, just as God or Spirit may take the place of father.
The need to help is
accompanied in Lac cases by a strong aversion to injustice. Thus many Lac individuals
become advocates, particularly for women and children. I have been struck by
the fact that it is only my Lac clients that use the word ‘advocate’ in
consultations. They identify strongly with the role. The Lac person’s work with
community, and her strong sense of injustice, usually reflect a left-wing political
bias. However Lac is generally more interested in community and in spirituality
than in politics.
Rebel
with a Cause
One of Lac’s primary defences is to rebel. The newborn’s move away
from his mother, when he has not been taken in, is the first ‘No,’ and it is
followed by many more. Mother is not only the original source of nourishment.
She is also the first authority. The child’s withdrawal is not only a
protection, but also the beginning of a kind
of rebellion. Later on,
he will feel the need to rebel against authority, particularly when that
authority is seen as uncaring. This combination of rebellion and sensitivity to
injustice often results in the Lac person
become an activist. The intensity of the Lac activist’s commitment to the cause
is directly proportional to his own sense of indignation at being abandoned.
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.
Firstly,
the Lac issues of abandonment and feeling unsupported are not prominent in Ammonium
cases.
Secondly,
Ammoniums tend to have clearer boundaries than Lacs,
both in terms of knowing when to say ‘No,’ and in terms of psychic empathy.
Thirdly, 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.
Causticum
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.
Secondly,
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 they 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.
Secondly, 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.
(Bert Hellinger has shown convincingly that personal guilt arises
when we feel that we have threatened our place in the family or community.
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.
In particular Carcinosinum can appear very close to Lac felinum. We shall examine the differences later in the
chapter on 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.
Vorwort/Suchen Zeichen/Abkürzungen Impressum