Steps to an Ecology of Self Implications for Homeopathy

“Daughter: Daddy, are these conversa-tions serious?

Father: Certainly they are.

D: They are not a sort of game that youplay with me?

F: God forbid … but they are a sort ofgame that we play together.

D: Then they�re not serious!

F: I don�t mind – not much – about win-ning or losing. When your questions putme in a tight spot, sure, I try a little hard-er to think straight and to say clearlywhat I mean. But I don�t bluff and I don�tset traps. There is no temptation tocheat.

D: That�s just it … It�s a game. Peoplewho cheat just don�t know how to play.They treat a game as though it were seri-ous.

F: But it is serious.”

From “Metalogue: About Games andBeing Serious”, in �Steps to an Ecologyof Mind�, by Gregory Bateson (New York:Ballantine Books, 1972), p. 14

Daughter:What is “self” Dad?

Father: Hmm, good question, I rememberthat Carl Jung, the famous psychiatrist,once wrote about the “self” being some-thing that is continuously striving forwholeness.

D: That would mean that we all will havewholeness eventually.

F: Well, we all have that potential.

D: What stops us from getting there?

F: I think it could be those barriers that arepart of our culture; materialism, egocentrictendencies, judgements etc.

D: How can we avoid those things that stopus from being whole?

F: I have often thought about this veryquestion. It seems that a good place to startis asking another question which would be“how might shifting our focus to our�centre� be more supportive of our self-de-velopment?”

D: What does that mean?

F: In practices like Yoga, Aikido and medi-tation one is taught to balance oneself, sortof combining one�s mind and body into akind of a unity. This practice helps createless pain with life�s ever-present conflicts.

D: Can you show me this?

F: Well, let me grab your left shoulder ifyou don�t mind (holding very assertively).How do you feel?

D: It�s a little scary, like I am being at-tacked.

F: Well, now step back with your left legand keep eye contact with me. What hap-pened?

D: I pulled you towards me and you lostyour balance.

F: How do you feel now?

D: More in control, less scared.

F: Here is another example. Put your fistout and push against my fist, as I put pres-sure on your fist; what are you doing?

D: Putting more pressure on your fist.

F: Ok, I reduced my pressure, what did youdo then?

D: I reduced my pressure too!

F: Well, force blindly follows force, doesn�tit?

D: Yes, but pushing slowly and with lessforce allows the other person to push lessand in a more gentle way.

F: Kind of how nature works.

D: I don�t get that one.

F: Well if you look at our problems in thisworld it is usually the difference betweenhow we humans think things are and hownature functions.

D: Are you saying, don�t mess with nature?

F: Well, at least we need to recognize howthings are all interconnected.

D: That is not always easy since lots of peo-ple don�t care about pollution or even whatthey eat.

F: That takes what is called “wisdom”,which is to understand the connectionsand what will happen if we mess with na-ture.

D: How does this all relate to being centredand the growing “self”, Dad?

S U M M A R Y

In the framework of a dialogue, patterns and barriers towards self-develop-ment are discussed in relation to understanding how communication, per-ceptions, psychological aspects and temperaments can enhance homeo-pathic case-taking and remedy selection.

K E Y WO R D S Self-confidence, Temperaments, Ecology, Carl Jung, Case-taking, Carbo vegetabilis

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of SelfImplications for Homeopathy

Kenneth Silvestri, USA

Zeitschrift Homœopathic Links hl872 Satzbetrieb Ziegler + M�llerDOI 10.1055/s-2008-1038552 Verlag Sonntag/K. Seidel

Datum 11.04.2008

Kenneth Silvestri, Steps to an – Homœopathic Links Summer 2008, Vol. 21: 1 – 5 � Sonntag Verlag in MVS Medizinverlage Stuttgart GmbH & Co. KG 1

F: Yes, thank you. You see, what we aretalking about is “conflict”, which is a bigbarrier in the journey towards wholenessfor the self.

D: Yes, I don�t necessarily like conflict.

F: Yes, I can understand that, but in natureconflict is neither bad nor good, it just is,and when we understand that, we canpractise centring and blending or pushingin a gentler way as before.

D: I get it, in nature there really aren�t anyjudgements, or selfishness or what did youcall it?

F: Arrogance and ego-centric patterns.

D: Wait a minute, not so fast. What aboutthings like fear and anger, they can get inthe way to self-growth.

F: Very good point. It follows if we relax,breathe and avoid the statements like “Icould have done this”, or “I should havedone it this way”, etc., we are ready forthese emotions in a positive way.

D: How?

F: Our emotions are like our muscles, wecan be tense and heavy or light and re-laxed. Fear can be celebrated and em-braced and anger can be assertively com-municated. In a great book titled �Angerthe misunderstood Emotion�, (New York:Simon and Schuster, 1989) by Carol Tavis,the author tells the story of how one daythe Buddha could not deliver his sermonbecause a snake had prevented his congre-gation from attending. He discussed thiswith the snake (I suppose he was like HarryPotter in this case). The next week hiswhole congregation attended his sermon;however, afterwards the Buddha was leav-ing the temple when he heard a rustlingand saw a painfully bruised snake. Heasked what had happened. The snake de-scribed how he had not bothered the con-gregation and that they had beaten him.The Buddha reiterated that he had told thesnake not to bite, but did not tell him not tohiss.

D: Yikes! That was a lesson well learned.

F: Well by not letting emotions hold youback, it then takes communication skillsthat are based on win-win ways ratherthan win-lose encounters.

D: Meaning?

F: Cooperative communication is like a vol-ley on a ping-pong table. If I spike the ballwe both lose since the rules are win-win.

D: How does that translate into communi-cation, Dad?

F: I say something, you check to see if youunderstand it, I agree or disagree, then yousay something, I check and you let meknow if I got it and so forth.

D: Any other things about communication?

F: Probably many more than we have timefor, but I would include being caring, trust-worthy and, going back to what we dis-cussed earlier, recognizing our connectionsand taking the time to be passionate aboutunderstanding our connections and differ-ences.

D: You mentioned Carl Jung earlier. Howdid he come to believe that the self is al-ways trying to reach wholeness?

F: He believed that we live and act each daythrough our conscious self. Actions likegetting to school and work, doing thethings that get us through our day. How-ever he also felt that our unconscious self,where our dreams and inner thoughtscome from, are connected to a “collectiveunconscious” which to him is like a reser-voir of all living experiences.

D: Sort of like a hologram.

F: Yes, and in this holographic reservoirthere are symbols that he called “arche-types” that allow us all to be connected.

D: What are these archetypes?

F: They are invisible, but they come to us inuniversal symbols, things we recognize inour own way that connect us to our legacy,but we never really see them, we use themas reference points. They are like seeds ofreadiness. We see a tree for instance, but itis constructed and understood through ourown unique mental process. It is not the ar-chetype; it is our perspective for a “tree”,that may have been stimulated by past col-lective images found in art and verse.

D: Where do they exist then?

F: In dreams, stories, poems, fairy tales, andart. You can look up at the sky in the eve-

ning and contemplate the constellationsand then relate that to your experiences.There is a word that I believe is importantin understanding all of this, it is “aesthetic”which loosely means “something of beautyand art”. This word along with one of myother favourite words “context” is the hu-man metaphor or symbol for “nature”. Yousee, we can never totally see nature, theword itself is not the thing, it is sort ofhow a map is really not the territory thatwe encounter with our senses. It is in our“contexts”, our environment, that our selfevolves and grows within, using thesesymbols as reference points like on a map.

D: Wow, you said a lot there. Are you say-ing that we have the potential to be part ofall human experience and use this map tobe more whole and content?

F: Yes, and you said content. I agree, yousee if we can get over seeing nature as abunch of fragments, we have a chance tobe content. Splitting nature up is an illu-sion. Another famous thinker, Martin Bu-ber, (�I and Thou�, New York: Charles Scrib-ner, 1972) wrote about our choice of seeingnature as “I-IT” or I-Thou; in other wordswe can separate ourselves from, say, a treeand view it as a nuisance because of itsleaves clogging our gutters or we can beconnected to it in a spiritual way and rec-ognize ourn interconnectedness with it;then the leaves can find their place.

D: But what about all those opposites wehave to deal with each day, are they con-nected?

F: Another good question. I call these ever-present opposites “paradoxes”, things thatare imposed on us by culture and language,like good and bad. However, another choiceis, we can look at these “opposites” as differ-ences or healthy parts of our wholeness.Like conflict they just are; however we canblend with them as nature does, or, unfortu-nately, try to keep them separate and sufferthe inevitable consequences of injuriouspatterns such as global warming, war etc.

D: How does thisRelate to Your Workas a Homeopath?

F: Well, you know a lot about homoeopa-thy, “like cures like”. However, this evolv-ing self we have been discussing plays adeeper part in how the remedies work.

Kenneth Silvestri, Steps to an – Homœopathic Links Summer 2008, Vol. 21: 1 – 5 � Sonntag Verlag in MVS Medizinverlage Stuttgart GmbH & Co. KG2

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D: In what way?

F: Homeopathy, like the “self”, is an ecolog-ical process of interconnected patterns. Ithas to be recognized as part of nature tobe truly effective. With this perspective,we can better understand how each persondeals with his or her journey in differentways. Then that favourite word of mine,“context” can allow us to see how factorsof gender, class, race, culture, and ethnicityproduces learning (and life) styles that in-fluences how we heal and cope with thebarriers to our self-fulfilment. These learn-ing styles are what we call temperaments.This, for homeopathy, defines one�s “con-stitutional” makeup and needs.

D: Is that part of our personality?

F: Yes, most psychologists agree that thereare four basic styles: Feeling, Thinking, In-tuitive and Sensate. I use a story that I em-bellished for my students that I believe isoriginally based on how Edward Whitmont,who was a homeopath and Jungian thera-pist, would demonstrate the different tem-peraments. It starts at this great art decodinner in Paterson, N. J. where I grew up.The cook makes wonderful soup but hislong ponytail would inevitably shed a hairinto the soup. This first guy walks in, ordersa bowl, sees the hair and starts yelling,leaves and doesn�t stay to enjoy the soup.This is the angry sensate trait. The next fel-low comes in, sees the hair in the soup,calmly calls the waitress over and whispersto her to bring another bowl. In this case hedemonstrates the sanguine intuitive trait.The third person comes in, sees the hairand begins to silently weep and doesn�tsay anything, pays and leaves, obviouslythe nervy-thinking person. A fourth personenters the diner, orders soup, sees that hairand guess what? He takes the hair out andenjoys the soup. This represents the laid-back feeling type. Each of us has compo-nents of all four, but we tend to be charac-terized by one or two and each tempera-ment has an outward and inward part.

D: How so?

F: The feeling temperament for instancecan be rigid, dogmatic, preoccupied andfull of hidden fears, especially if it is in aninward mode. It makes sense if you aresubjective and somewhat shy, but if youare more outgoing and still a feeling typeyou can be externally emotional, possiblyjudgmental, and more egocentric. Somemain remedies that have these traits are

Calcarea carbonica, Capsicum, Dulcamara,Hepar Sulphur, Mezereum, Natrum carboni-cum, Pulsatilla and Sepia. A thinking per-son when in an inward state can be specu-lative and a theorist while their outwardstyle would be factual, precise, rationaland dry. Some main remedies that havethese traits are Arsenicum, Chamomilla,Hyoscyamus, Magnesia phosphorica, Nuxmoschata and Silica to name a few.

D: What about the other two tempera-ments?

F: Yes, the first two are very rational; theremaining two are more perceptual and ir-rational. The intuitive in their outwardmanifestation can be impressionable, in-stinctive and full of hunches while its innerside could have jealous, with negative pro-jections. Remedies that match this are Aco-nitum, Aurum, Cactus, Ferrum, Phosphorus,Platinum, Sanguinara and Sulphur amongmany others. The sensate type is more of arealist, down-to-earth yet fearful, angryand helpless; their introverted side willmisjudge, not complete tasks and can benarcissistic. In this case remedies such asBryonia, Lachesis and Nux vomica wouldbe possible considerations. Together thesetraits can be seen to produce patterns thatcan help point to strengths and/or uniqueproblems. Someone, for instance, can ex-hibit an outward temperamental trait buttheir presenting problem will usually befound in an opposing trait or vice versa,calling out for the needed remedy. Theremedies, too, like the people they may re-flect, can and do exhibit more than onetrait.

D: How can you figure this out, the uniqueproblem that needs help?

F: Another good point. In homeopathy youlook for the most unique, striking symp-tom or problem. Our friend Carl Jungtaught us that a person will present in acertain habitual conscious manner – oneof the temperaments for instance – hecalled this the “persona”, but it is withone�s “shadow”, found in one�s uncon-scious makeup or in an opposing tempera-ment where many answers for wholenessare to be found. This is where we can assessone�s descriptions of symptoms and howthey might relate to archetypes and bar-riers to health and interpersonal relation-ships.

D: How is this revealed or made known?

F: I have seen this in how people navigatetheir journey towards wholeness or, as Imentioned earlier, use their “centre”. Thetemperamental styles are tools for the ex-periences of dealing with conflict, commu-nication and blending. A worldview ofbeing “I-Thou” or “I-It”, or the combinationof these choices in everyday contexts con-tains clues to the difference that will makea difference in the quest for wholeness.Dreams and symbols will also give furthermeaning and clues to this needed help. Allof this plays into the goal of every homeo-pathic remedy, which is to balance the im-mune system for this journey. The sensa-tion, location and modalities are the back-drop of the context where strengths andbarriers to this process are found and cor-rected.

D: I can see this relates to the “self”, buthow did you learn to connect this to home-opathy?

F: The great homeopath Baron Von Boen-ninghausen had these insights early onwhen homeopathy was in its infancy. Heunderstood the connections and energy ofthe remedies as they related to symptomsand their sensations by observing the char-acteristics of our species. He avoided thedanger of succumbing to cultural and lan-guage constraints that separate this energyfrom nature or into human and non-hu-man components which is the case withmuch of the traditional medicine of ourday. This produces an unfortunate dichoto-my that will most of the time misguide andover-simplify any movement towards self-development. It would be like one focusingon the finger pointing to the moon ratherthan the luminance that is the moon.

D: Where is this energy you are talkingabout?

F: It is the collective unconsciousness andarchetypes that we previously discussed,and in the hologram that frames the canvasof the whole self in a substantiated andwell inter-connected manner, which is theaesthetic medium and life force of all livingthings. However, these articulated sensa-tions of the self will only lead to the energyof the needed remedy if it is thoroughlyand rigorously contextualized.

D: Sounds serious.

F: It is a serious and responsible role tohelp facilitate healing. It should be con-firmed by the patterns and attributes of


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how one travels this journey to self-devel-opment. The consequent energy also in-cludes what in homeopathy are called Mi-asms or profound categories of diseasetraits that frame the canvas of the person�sneeds and evolving self. As for myself and, Ibelieve, for other homeopaths, we need toconstantly master the profound knowledgeand similarities of the homeopathic rem-edies as they relate to the wisdom of thisprocess that reflects our journey towardsself wholeness and health.

D: So how do you go about this whole proc-ess when someone seeks your help?

F: It is very important to “join” with some-one seeking any facilitation to a problem. Itis like synchronizing since good communi-cation is a sharing of states. I call this the“celebration of interpersonal skills”. Peopleneed to be comfortable in order to narratetheir life, actions and behaviour. I use aframework called a “genogram”, which is athree-generational family tree that helpscontextualize one�s narration. As the lensof the situation is widened and connec-tions or themes appear, I then make noteof the location, sensation, quantity, time,circumstances/context, and modalities ofall symptoms as is commonly done in clas-sical homeopathy (who, what, where, withwhat, why, and what mode).

D: Then what?

F: I focus on the interconnected contexts oftheir articulated journey and start makingnote of the person�s temperament traitsand how they are dealing with conflictand communication. This is the psycholog-ical aspect or the gap between where theself is and where it wants to be. After reper-torizing some initial unique symptoms(mental, emotional and physical), I dosome research and cross-referencing topick up further insights. As symbols andpatterns come to the surface I look at howthey relate to presenting symptoms.

D: I am sorry, Dad, I was dozing and missedthis last part, it was meditative but I didn�thear much.

F: That is fine, you helped me to get this allout into the collective unconscious.

D: Hmm. No more questions… for now …

Case Example (Summaryof Initial Narrative)

Henry, 58 years old and of Italian ethnicity,came to see me two years ago with a pre-senting problem of being sluggish, whichbegan six months previously when he wasassigned a new boss at his textile factory.Henry had worked there for twenty-fiveyears and had a routine where he com-pleted his work in a quality manner. Hewould often work long hours and pridedhimself on dong his job in a perfect way.The new boss, however, wanted changesand has been hard on him with disparagingremarks and threats if he did not do thingsa certain way. Henry initially defended hisboss�s actions and rationalized this behav-iour. It was only later when talking abouthis growing up that he mentioned his“somewhat timid” and sensitive side. Hewas married for thirty years with threechildren. The panic, shock and anxiety thathe finally admitted to was a “well-kept” se-cret from his wife and family because hewas embarrassed. His wife was concernedabout his restless nights and overall weak-ness which he dismissed as normal stress.Order in his life was very important andhis work situation now created overallanxiety. Other symptoms included indiges-tion, eructations and flatulence. The panicwas anticipatory, felt in his stomach andwould happen at night in bed as hethought of work. He has become indiffer-ent and sluggish to everything especiallyoutside of work. Henry began to describethings as hopeless and even dreamedabout work with a lot of dark images, fireand blackness. He went to a homeopathfive years ago with similar symptomswhen he was working on a special projectwhich was not finished in time. He hadsome good success on his own with home-opathy for acute symptoms of flu, coldsand allergies in the past with Arsenicum,Pulsatilla and Sabadilla. During the episodefive years ago, there was criticism fromcustomers which resulted in his increasedanxiety. The homeopath gave him Sulphur,but it did not seem to help. It was followedby Nux vomica, with little relief. At thattime he tried an anti-anxiety medicationfrom his internist. When his routine be-came regular, he slowly felt better.

The framework for the above assessmentwas my genogram inquiry. Henry disclosedthat he was the youngest of three male sib-lings; his father was hard on him as werehis brothers who constantly made fun of

him as a child. He always felt small after-wards. There was anticipatory anxiety, fearof heights, always being cold and longingfor heat. When asked how he communi-cated his emotions. Henry described hisself-confidence as being hindered by em-barrassment. Siblings and friends madefun of his actions and “offended” himwhich he compensated by being precise,factual and the best at school and eventu-ally at his job. Any conflict was bad andwould be avoided at any cost, its existenceeven denied. His problematic tempera-ment was well within the inward “feeling”trait with hidden fears, being shy, holdingemotions in, being dogmatic and rigid. Hisinitial presenting nervous “thinking” traitswere outwardly manifested in his factual,precise and rational dependency especiallyat work. The overall physical and mentalsymptoms of anxiety and fear fall withinthe Psoric miasm.

Initial rubrics were:l Anxiety; loc; stomach, inl Mod; eructations; agg.l Mod; flatus; agg.l Mod; mortification, humiliation, cha-

grin agg.l Offended easilyl Embarrassmentl Anxiety; conscience, ofl Mod; weakness; withl Indifference; withl Sluggishness of bodyl Anxiety; mod; bed; inl Delusion, imaginations; smallerl Fear; high placesl Being cold

These brought up the remedies Sulphur,Calcarea Carbonicanitalics?, Nux vomica,Pulsatilla and Carbo vegetabilis. Differentia-tion pointed to Carbo vegetabilis with hispattern of timidity and embarrassment(not sharing his reasons for anxiety), theemphasis on proving himself at work, hisdependability at his job, the sluggishnessand stomach issues, and his passive com-munication style. Further factors were hisshock and resulting panic from anticipa-tory fears, which were worse before sleepin bed and his consequent restlessness.Past issues with being embarrassed, indif-ferent and feeling small were also a confir-mation. The symbolic emphasis on “black-ness and fire” which is a colour of nervouspessimism and is in relation to burnt woodwas also indicative of the make-up of theremedy itself. Carbo vegetabilis is indi-cated for dual temperament traits of feel-ing/nervy-thinking, especially the inward

Kenneth Silvestri, Steps to an – Homœopathic Links Summer 2008, Vol. 21: 1 – 5 � Sonntag Verlag in MVS Medizinverlage Stuttgart GmbH & Co. KG4

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“feeling” themes of fears and timidity andin this case of psoric mental and physicalissues.

Follow-up

Henry tried Carbo vegetabilis in a 4 oz bot-tle of Q1 potency, six succussions, one tea-spoon diluted into 4 oz of water and oneteaspoon taken from the dilution cup, re-peated every other day for four doses. Dur-ing a follow-up in two weeks, he reportedbeing calmer, sleeping better and feelingmore secure. He discussed the problemswith his wife and confronted his new bosswho respected his feelings and apologized.He also told me that “even my nosebleedsstopped”. I asked him why he had not men-tioned that to me before and he said thathe was embarrassed because it used tohappen when he was a youngster duringepisodes of being ridiculed. This is a uniquesymptom of Carbo vegetabilis, “Epistaxisfrom emotions”. I suggested that he waitand see what happens in the future beforerepeating the remedy. He had a few minorrelapses over the next few months, tookthe remedy on a weekly basis until he hadsome symptoms of anxiety that did notseem to reflect how he felt, which wasnow “secure and happy”. Many times aslight aggravation with Q potencies indi-cates no longer needing the remedy at thatpoint. He stopped the remedy and did notreport any need for it. At that time he de-cided on a few follow-up sessions dealingwith assertiveness training and conflictresolution skills which proved fruitful forhim in some confrontational situations.

Discussion

This case was repertorized as above fromHenry�s articulation as so many classicalhomeopaths have done over the years.However, this framework for me, regardingthe barriers to his self-development andhis genogram, allowed for a context to feeland understand the deeper nuances of hisnarrative. The patterns of temperament,communication skills and the symbolism(i.e. blackness, being small) further con-firm the constitutional state and neededsupportive resources that eventually as-sisted him in future encounters. Henry ini-tially presented with a strong outward“thinking” persona; however, upon inquiryabout his family legacy and fear of confron-tation, the presenting problems were iden-tified with his inward “feeling” traits. Headmitted to not sharing these aspects inthe past, again out of embarrassment. Theprevious homeopath was not privy to hisever-present symbolism nor Henry�s ar-ticulated shadow temperament. Our job ashealers does not stop with the correct rem-edy. Possible second prescriptions, life-style mentoring and healing layers needongoing understanding of the interconnec-tions in the self�s continuing journey.

I believe that there is a shared state be-tween, in this case, myself and Henry, asthere is in different and unique ways be-tween every homeopath and people whomthey are working with. The joining, the re-spect for psychological aspects, an ecologi-cal framework and sensitivity to collectiveissues of symbols all enhance the homeo-pathic process by expanding the possibil-ities for a healing relationship, especiallywith the infinite and profound complexnarratives that come our way.

References

1 Bateson G. Steps to an Ecology of Mind.New York: Ballantine Books, 1972: p.14

2 Tavis C. Anger the Misunderstood Emo-tion. New York: Simon and Schuster,1989

3 Buber M. I and Thou. New York: CharlesScribner, 1972

4 Little D. Writings on Temperament atthe website www.simillimum.com nok?

5 Cicchetti J.n Dreams, Symbols, and Ho-meopathy: Archetypal Dimensions ofHealing. Berkeley: North Atlantic Books,2003

6 De Schepper L. Homeopathy and the Pe-riodic Table. Santa Fe: Full of Life Pub-lishing, 2003

7 Whitmont E. Psyche and Substance: Es-says on Homeopathy in the Light ofJungian Psychology. Berkeley: North At-lantic Books, 1980

8 Jung CG. Collected Works of Carl Jung.Princeton: Princeton University Press,1978

Thoughts on communication and homeop-athy are explained in my articles:

9 Silvestri K. Homeopathic casetakingfrom a communication perspective.American Homeopath 2005; 11: 77– 78

10 Silvestri K. The art of sustaining change:a personal framework for homeopathicemotional healing. Simillimum 2002;14: 85–98

Kenneth Silvestri, Ed.D., CCH268 Green Village Road, suite 6Green Village (Chatham Township),NJ 07935USAInternet:http://www.drkennethsilvestri.comE-mail: [email protected]


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Documents

Steps to an Ecology of Self Implications for Homeopathy