MINDING THE MIND IN THE CLINIC
APPROACHING CHILDREN: KREOSOTE
Dr Ashok Mohanty
9810026564
A boy four years old was brought to me for multiple warts on
the body. The warts were spread on the abdomen, forearm and right hollow of the
knee.
The boy as such had no complaints about the warts. Neither
he complained about the warts nor were the warts painful or bleeding, needing
some medicine. But the parents were concerned as there were fifteen plus small
warts and they are growing day by day.
Because of some prior knowledge about homoeopathy the
parents had already consulted a homoeopathic doctor and prescribed remedies
like Thuja, Nit Acid, Causticum and Dulcamara to the boy which yielded no
result.
I asked the parents to explain everything in detail about
the boy.
His father told, “He is naughty boy. He never sits idle at
home, always in a move. Even during rest on the bed also he will be doing one
or other thing like disturbing his elder brother who is studying on the same
bed or pulling the hair of the mother who is taking a nap.
Everyday he will come up with a request for a new item from
market. “Papa, bring pasta for me as shown on the TV or Gems surprise Ball with
Benten toy inside.” When I bring the same he will tell “now I don’t want this,
you bring Mc Cain Smily or MC Donald happy meal toy etc etc.”
I just listen to him and tell I will bring next time,
sometime he will listen to it and keeps quiet and keeps on playing but
sometimes he becomes very adamant that, “now I want it immediately.”
It might be night 10 O’clock but he will be very obstinate
that he needs the same right now which is practically impossible as the market
is closed by that time.
Then he will start throwing the items with which he would be
playing. No matter how costly the items are, he will throw them outside.
Sometimes I keep my cool but if my mood is not good then I
keep hold of him and slap him. But there is no stopping of his nuisance, he
stays in the same state of anger and defiance and again throw the items around.
Even after repeated slapping and threatening he will not
cool down. He will cry in a very loud tone and look into my eyes and keeps strong
eye contact with me. This behavior further angers me and sometimes I beat him a
lot but he will not go away from that place and keep on staring at me with
defiance.
His mother intervenes and takes him away to the next room.
But after few minutes he will again come back in front of me and start sobbing
and crying looking at my eyes with defiance. He will not go away till I tell
him sorry and take him in my arm and love him and tell lot of things like, “tomorrow
I will certainly bring the item you want, please excuse me for my rudeness, I
will not repeat the same etc etc.”
I observed the boy sitting on the chair. He was listening to
what his father was saying and looking at me. There was no fear on his face as
other boys of his age in the clinic do.
Children generally fear doctor first time in a clinical setup because of
repeated experience to injection during vaccination. I asked him his name; he
didn’t reply and looked to the other side.
From the above information I formed the following rubrics:
OBSTINATE, headstrong - children
CAPRICIOUSNESS - rejecting the things for which he has been
longing; when offered, he is
ANGER - throwing things around
DEFIANT
SHRIEKING - children, in
CARRIED - desire to be carried - caressed; and
A dose of Kreosotum 30 was prescribed which cured the warts.
Understand the remedy
and differentiating it from the other remedies in the core rubric ‘CARRIED -
desire to be carried - caressed; and’
Kreosotum child is very obstinate. Once he made up mind for
something he will make sure that he gets it. He is so stubborn that nothing can
deter him from fulfilling his need.
Obstinacy can be
defined as an unreasonable determination to execute one’s plan. He will not
yield to any reason or plea how logical may it be. He goes to any extent to
have his own way. He cannot be easily subdued.
This can be differentiated from pertinacity in which the person also holds firmly to his demand or
need or purpose or belief, but yields to logical understanding. The person is
intelligent enough to understand the situation and yields accordingly but mind
you he never lets the demand or purpose permanently. Rather when the situation
becomes normal he will again ask for his need to be fulfilled.
Kreosotum child is capricious as well. The state of the
child is such that his mind is very changeable and impulsive. He changes his
demands very impulsively without taking any heed of the circumstance whether it
is possible or not.
Kreosotum child has a deadly combination of three mental
rubrics i.e.,
OBSTINATE, headstrong - children
CAPRICIOUSNESS - rejecting the things for which he has been
longing; when offered, he is
DEFIANT
This can be best explained as a child who is very whimsical and
erratic, changes his demands very frequently even though it is given to him and
doesn’t understand the difficulty or the reasonable problem of others and
sticks to his demand strongly. When admonish he becomes defiant and even dares
to look into the eyes of the guardian.
Only caressing brings normalcy to Kreosotum child. The
person who has slapped or admonished him has to caresses him with lot of
affection then only the Kreosotum child becomes normal.
Let’s differentiate the other two remedies present in the
rubric ‘CARRIED - desire to be carried -
caressed; and’:
Aconite needs caressing when he feels that the situation is
frightening to him. He feels now he cannot come out of the situation on his
own. He communicates to the person who can help him to come out of the state
which is death like frightening to him.
For example, a child who is constipated calls her mother
from the toiled several times, “Mother the stool is not coming out, it is
paining a lot.” But when the mother assures her that, “Daughter, just hold on,
give a little pressure from the abdomen, the stool will certainly come out,
please bear the pain for a few moment and you will see the stool will pass out
and you will feel relieved.”
The child holds on by getting assured by the soft words of
the mother and bears the pain and continues to exert pressure and ultimately
the stool passes out.
We have the following set of rubrics for Aconite for the
above expression:
FEAR - suffering, of
COMMUNICATIVE
LIGHT - desire for
PERSEVERANCE
CARRIED - desire to
be carried - caressed; and
Pulsatilla child needs tons and tons of affection. She feels
she is the only child who should be loved and caressed.
She is very selfish and is very jealous if the parents love
others in the family especially her other siblings. She feels that others
should love her and she will love others as per her need.
We have a rubric in Pulsatilla i.e. AFFECTION - absorbs. This means that you give any amount of
affection to Pulsatilla it will absorb immediately as it has lots & lots of
need for love and affection. So Pulsatilla child always needs to be carried and
caressed with love and for love.
