The Sycotic miasm
The word sycosis derives from the word “syco” (Greek
word for fig). Hahnemann used this word because the sycotic person
tends to make warts that may reach to the point of looking like
a fig. In other words sycosis means verrucose.
Let’s begin with the sycotic person’s mental sphere:
The sycotic person has an inclination to show off.
A sycotic woman walks in the street and cuts a dash. Heads turn
around when she walks by and that is what she seeks, consciously
or even unconsciously. A sycotic man walks with a swagger and puffs
himself up to show his muscles. Expensive clothes bought at “trendy”
shops also have to do with sycosis. Buying an expensive car (though
it is not necessary for professional use) is also related to sycosis.
Medicine and “trendy” professions, such as journalist,
lawyer, politician, have much appeal for sycotic persons. The shinny
shingle on the door, the glamorous surface, the worldwide recognition
appeal to the young student. A sycotic scientist thinks of himself
to be an exceptional case in his field, even though he is mediocre.
He calls himself an expert or an adept in his field. He likes to
put many titles on his shingle. As a patient he prefers distinguished
and highly qualified doctors, who sound omniscient to him. He has
a mistrust of doctors who are simple and straight.
This inclination to show off marks every sycotic behavior and
most times it is unconscious. When he is sad, for instance, the
way he cries, the way he sighs draws everybody’s attention
and sympathy towards him. The way a sycotic person gets angry is
also flamboyant. The person screams, shouts, and makes a great fuss.
It is some kind of “puffing up” that draws other people’s
attention. When the sycotic person is happy, he roars with laughter
and also makes a great fuss.
Another major feature of the sycotic person’s mental sphere
is a tendency to keep things to oneself. In general
the notion of keeping overweighs that of giving. Therefore the sycotic
person is not keen on giving. The sycotic teacher is rather unwilling
to give his knowledge; he is not the kind of person to communicate
knowledge. He will try and keep it to himself. He may even try to
mislead other people so long and he does not give it. Most times
there is ambivalence about giving-keeping.
As for emotions he keeps them inside him as well. Although he himself
wants to be the focus of everyone’s attention, he does not
open his heart to his partner when he is in trouble. It is the case
of a mother who gives her child the cold shoulder. There is no emotion
in her caress, which is rather straight-laced.
The sycotic lover is reluctant to convey emotion.
Passion is not among his characteristics. Sycosis is secret.
The sycotic person tends to keep everything secret, out of sight.
This may happen either consciously or unconsciously. For instance,
he may keep his aims secret, he acts deviously, he does not reveal
much about himself and he hides his real intentions. He also hides
his real feelings. When he is sad, he does not look as sad as the
circumstances require. That’s why he seems to be strong in
other people’s eyes. He may dislike someone and still smile
at him and be very friendly with him.
When the sycotic person gives, he certainly means to receive something
in exchange later on. Avarice is an expression
of the need to keep things to oneself. An avaricious person is “stingy”,
he does not give. Collecting objects is a sycotic manifestation
too.
In general, when a sycotic person responds to stimulation, his
reaction is in the right direction but has a reduced intensity.
This is due to the fact that he ‘keeps things to himself”,
he absorbs only a part of intensity of the given stimulation. This
shows that the person is strong in appearance only. For instance,
when he is subjected to a sad stimulation, he does not seem to be
sad.
In fact, however, this sort of strength is weakness and this is
due to the fact that this kind of person has a limited width of
response. He shows inflexibility in the way of
functioning, that is to say. This stiffness coexists with a tendency
to have control. The sycotic person wants to have
control over other people and over himself as well. He keeps every
expression, every emotion of his under control. He cannot stand
the spontaneity of emotions and acts.
Pedantry is another feature of sycotic miasm.
The housewife who gets annoyed at finding a speck of dust on the
furniture, who sweeps and mops the floor three times a day, who
forbids her husband to enter the house with his shoes on, is an
example of sycotic pedantry.
In general the sycotic person is straight-laced prim and proper,
orderly, he concerns himself too much with schedule, so much that
he lays more weight on the schedule that on the essence of things.
He wants all the objects on his desk to be in alignment, he wants
his car to be perfectly clean, he sees that its color does not fade;
he protects it against the rain and the wind. He worries about small
details.
Religiosity is another example of sycotic pedantry. A religionist
focuses his attention not on philosophy and the deeper meaning of
religion but on the ritual. It is very important to him that the
sign of the cross is made three times, not two, that the fasting
is observed for exactly forty days, he is very strict on the observance
of the schedule. Religiosity, along with the other features of sycotic
miasm, were typical of the Scribes and Pharisees, who always abided
by the letter of the law but could not understand what purpose the
existence of the law served in the first place.
The sycotic scientist tends to classify the phenomena. Classifications
are sycotic expressions. Excessive adherence to classifying systems,
such as DSM or ICDX is sycosis. The notion of specialty and overspecialization
is a sycotic characteristic too. The sycotic person focuses his
attention on details but misses the general picture. Therefore we
can see the evolution of medicine and science in general and how
important it is to have a complete and in depth cure of scientists
so that science may evolve.
In general the sycotic person is dogmatic. To
him it is all black or white. He is inflexible.
He is not receptive to new ideas. He rejects a new idea without
even examining it. Reclassifications in the system of knowledge
and values fill him with anxiety. He wants knowledge and ideas to
be well classified inside his head. He wants everything to be arranged
and fixed. That causes him a need for control.
He wants to keep control of everything. The complexity and multiformity
of nature scare him. The perpetual motion of universe also scares
him. Consequently of all this multiformity he picks out what he
can classify, what he can put in order. That is usually only the
surface of phenomena. Once he has classified it, he will try to
keep it steady and fixed. He allows only small changes, which he
can control.
In general, there is a tendency in sycosis for exaggeration
of the psoric features. For instance, the psoric person has a vague
and unconscious feeling of inferiority. When, however the person
thinks that he is not capable of anything, that he is not good-looking,
that he is not intelligent, that he is lacking in everything, then
we notice an excessive expression of the feeling of inferiority
and it is the case of sycotic miasm.
As far as the love life of a sycotic person is concerned, he has
many fantasies related to the love partner. For example, as soon
as a sycotic man sees a woman, he has fantasies about erotic positions.
But although he has strong fantasies, he usually does not express
himself during love making, does use love talk, is cold and always
in control.
In the physical sphere hyperplasies and hypertrophies prevail.
As previously said, sycosis owes its name to this feature. Sycosis
is also characterized by an increase in secretions. For instance,
gonorrhea is a sycotic manifestation. Sycotic eczema shows profuse
effusion of fluids. At other times we notice retention of fluids
in the organism. Inflammation is a major feature of sycosis as well
as formation of cysts.
The Syphilitic miasm
Syphilitic miasm owes its name to the fact that it shows an innate
inclination to destruction, which is a predominant feature in syphilis.
It has been tormenting the human race before the outbreak of syphilis.
We should consider syphilis as one of the most probable manifestations
of the syphilitic miasm. Certainly if Hahnemann was alive today,
he would pick another name for this miasm.
But let us begin to describe the syphilitic person’s mental
sphere. One of the predominant features in syphilitic miasm is the
tendency to conquer. He constantly wants to conquer
something. After the conquest the object conquered loses its importance,
it may even disgust him. He has set himself a new target; he is
a hard person to satisfy, that is to say. The syphilitic is the
kind of person to be easily envious. Whatever catches
his eye, he wants to have it.
Another major feature of syphilitic miasm is the person’s
tendency to destruction. Hooligans, for example,
destroy everything, whatever they run across. They destroy even
when their team wins. They go to sports field not in order to enjoy
the game but to destroy. Destruction is a delight to them.
Thus, whereas the psoric fan will be modest and will respect the
rules and the opponent and whereas the sycotic fan will tend to
show off by wearing multi-colored scarves of his team, the syphilitic
person seeks destruction at every single moment.
The syphilitic religious person also destroys in the name of God
in whom he believes. He wants to kill, to eliminate the supporter
of a different religion; in contrast to the psoric person who penetrates
the deeper meaning of religion and who is a religious philosopher
as well as the sycotic person who sticks to ritualism.
Another syphilitic expression of religious sentiment is the rites
of “Black Magic”. The believer invokes the God of conquest
and destruction in order to achieve his aims, either of conquest
or destruction. Another frequent syphilitic picture is atheism.
The “iconoclast” who respects nothing, who believes
in nothing, is also another syphilitic expression. Religion is an
expression of the law, the syphilitic struggles against the law.
Syphilitic persons do not have a developed social consciousness;
they cannot offer other people anything of themselves.
They are anti-heroes; they do not accept having social obligations.
They refuse to do their military service as by law enacted. Indicative
of that is Caryotaki’s poem:
Michalios
Michalios has gone to the army.
He started in pride
together with Maris and Panayiotis
He could learn not even the “slope arms”
He always used to mumble: «Mr. corporal,
let me go back to my village».
The next year in the hospital,
he was silently looking at the sky.
he was pointing his eyes in one point,
his look was nostalgic and gentle,
as if he was saying, as if he was begging:
«Let me go home».
and Michalios died a soldier.
Some soldiers escorted him,
Maris and Panayiotis were with them.
The hole was covered on top of them,
but they left his foot outside:
Poor guy he was a little tall….
We can see in this poem certain features of syphilitic person. First
we see the lack of social consciousness. Secondly we notice dependence
on family. This dependence shows a profound immaturity.
It is a form of dependence that does not correspond to his age but
bears elements of infantile dependence.
This is due to the fact that the personality is not adequately
formed, so it collapses under the impact of a stress producing stimulation
and the person adopts more primitive ways of functioning, in other
words he behaves like an infant. This tendency to dependence is
the main predisposing factor to dependence on toxic substances and
alcohol, which in their heavy forms are syphilitic situations.
Another feature described above is how easily the syphilitic person
becomes disorganized under the impact of a stress
producing stimulation. Even in the case of a stimulation of medium
intensity there is a tendency to disorganisation, complete disorganisation,
till the person is brought to the verge of the organism’s
destruction. So it happens, for example, during a psychotic incident.
The syphilitic reaction to a stimulation, which an ordinary man
considers to be of medium intensity, is a complete disorganisation,
a complete loss of contact with reality. We will say more on that
subject in the following paragraphs.
The syphilitic’s person anger is a violent, explosive
anger that scares the people present. It is characterized
by destructiveness. The psoric person is hot-tempered, as a result
of his intense oversensitivity. It is, however, a superficial and
temporary annoyance. After having expressed himself, the annoyance
is gone. The sycotic person usually controls his anger but when
expressed, is excessive; so excessive that he becomes the focus
of attention. In no case, however, will he scare the others, as
the syphilitic person will.
The syphilitic person’s sadness is marked by destructiveness
too. The person thinks there is no sense in living any longer. He
is gloomy, sad and dismal. He denies life completely. He is not
interested in anything; in contrast to the sycotic person, who shows
his sadness through face expression, body posture and tears, and
contrary to the psoric person, who retires into himself, possessed
with feelings of inadequacy.
At moments of joy he is characterized by destructiveness as well.
He wants to destroy out of joy. This destructiveness may manifest
itself either outwards or inwards by driving the person mad. Someone
losing his senses on a happy occasion is syphilitic miasm; contrary
to the sycotic person, who wants everyone to share in his joy, and
contrary to the psoric person, who behaves like a child when he
becomes emotional.
Intense desire to put an end to one’s life is syphilitic
miasm as well. Suicide or Murder. It is an expression
of the destructiveness typical of the syphilitic person. Generally
speaking, the syphilitic person does not experience joy. He cannot
feel the simple joys of life. For example, at a child’s birth
the syphilitic person will be thinking to himself: “Why have
you come to this world? …You’d better not have been
born…Troubles and worries await you”.
On the other hand the sycotic person will be boasting about his
child, trying to point out the new-born’s natural gifts, and
he wants everyone to admire his child, whereas the enthusiastic
psoric person behaves like a child out of joy.
Destructiveness is the predominant feature in the physical sphere.
A typical physical manifestation of syphilitic miasm is ulcer. Ulcer
is a destructive process. There is destruction of shape, destruction
of structure at some point of the tissue.
Quick metastasis often goes together with the destructiveness of
the cancer process as we see in some forms of cancer.
The Tubercular miasm
What characterizes the tubercular miasm is a constant tendency
to change, a tendency to move,
to move towards a target which is idealized in the person’s
sphere of fantasies, which is far off from the person’s reality.
But in case this target is fulfilled, it loses its value and the
person loses interest in what used to fascinate him. Another target
dominates his fantasy now and it dominates just until it is fulfilled
as well, and then it will lose its value. We notice characteristics
of the psoric and the syphilitic miasm in the above. This is why
many consider it as a complex miasm and do not describe it separately
while others consider it as a separate miasm. We will try to describe
it as a separate entity. We must stress that tuberculosis is a simple
clinical manifestation of the tubercular miasm and that there are
other clinical situations except tuberculosis that belong to the
tubercular miasm.
Let us see some typical examples of what we mentioned above.
Let’s presume that a person in whom tubercular miasm is prevalent
lives in Athens. His life makes him feel dullness and boredom.
He often goes down to Piraeus and watches the boats sail. He watches
them and visualizes the cities far on the horizon. In his mind,
he makes plans for long journeys and beautiful cities. He will try
to travel if he is given the opportunity to. Need for travel
is a major feature of tubercular miasm.
Let us presume that it is feasible for him to leave his city and
go to Corfu, for instance. He will be full of enthusiasm for a short
while, but soon afterwards he will feel bored and listless again.
Over and over again he will be going to the harbor and wonder what
is hidden far on the horizon, over and over again he will be making
plans for new travels and he will be contemplating heavenly faraway
places.
This need for motion characterizes his love life too. The tuberculous
is an amorous person. He falls in love passionately but often falls
in love with inaccessible or forbidden cases. When he finally achieves
what he so much desires, then he realizes that in a short while
passion is gone, boredom and listlessness have taken its place.
The intensity of the emotions that a tubercular person experiences
in a love affair is also remarkable. In case these feelings are
frustrated, the person sinks in sadness. There is a wide known phrase
related to that: “I’ll become tuberculous for your love”.
Concerning the tuberculous person’s love life we should
mention that he often falls in love with cases to which there is
an obstacle. Thus he often desires someone else’s wife or
falls in love with a person with whom a love affair is not feasible
due to the circumstances. The same thing also applies to his interests.
He likes to keep himself busy with constantly new things. Daily
routine and ordinary life is not for him. He easily gets bored.
That is why he constantly wants to take up new activities,
new ideas. His spirit is always on the move. Thus he can
be witty or have artistic aptitudes especially for music and literature.
The tubercular person has constantly new inspirations but he finds
it hard to systematize all these new ideas. He has difficulty
in finishing what he has started to do. This is the reason
why he always starts something else and then something else again
etc. It is very important to keep that in mind regarding the education
of tubercular children. A strict educational system and strict parents
will only aggravate the state of health of such children and there
is serious danger of appearance of one of the diseases that belong
to the sphere of tubercular miasm.
In the tubercular miasm the rejection of daily routine in fantasy
and the pursuit of the elusive ideal, result in conflict with the
law. Inside the tubercular person lies the fear of punishment.
Many times it is subconscious and expresses his fantasy of being
punished because he dared to desire something different, something
new. As a result of that the tubercular person avoids open conflict
with the law and chooses to run away.
This is an intense feature of his. When he is subjected to a stress
producing stimulation, he does not respond directly in the same
direction but he reacts intensely in the reverse direction. Thus,
in order to get over the sadness due to a loss he may show working
over activity or he may go to a nightclub to blow off steam and
get over the sorrow of the incident. The Zeibekiko dance (popular
Greek dance in 7/8) is a typical tubercular symbol.
The study of the “rempetika” tubercular songs is of
interest. After studying their verses we conclude that the main
and more frequent subject of those songs is the mother.
In the tubercular miasm we often notice alternations
in the mental sphere. Thus we sometimes see the tubercular person
seeking protection and sometimes independence. Sometimes he is inactive
and sometimes restless. Sometimes he is depressed and sometimes
overly cheerful. Sometimes he is violent and sometimes extremely
sensitive.
The physical characteristics mentioned are the tendency to suppuration,
fistulas, diverticulums, and scars. Also the tendency to emaciation
and feebleness, the tendency to intense perspiration, the sensitivity
to cold and to weather changes.
George Lukas |
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