– Jan Scholten

‘Your best friend is yourself’

Concepts

Exhaustion, apathy Communication

Active, hurried Sympathetic

Fresh, lively, extrovert. Friends, acquaintances, neighbours

Aggression, fighting Brothers

Desire for unity Homesickness

Isolation Language and learning Curiosity and travel Restlessness and fears

Group analysis

The central theme of Phosphoric acid is the exhaustion of communication. They like to have many contacts with friends and acquaintances, and they like this contact to be meaningful. In the beginning stages Ph-ac does not give us the impression of being exhausted at all, they are more like Phos, very open and profound in their communications.

The second variation is linked to the first. This is when the possibilities for communication become exhausted. They feel that they have done their utmost to maintain a good contact, and now they have lost that contact in spite of all their efforts. This could be in the case of someone moving house, where they have lost all their old and trusted friends, neighbours and other relations. Homesickness is an important symptom of Ph-ac.

They become tired and exhausted, because they have lost the usual contact with their friends. This may lead to a state of apathy and indifference. The expression ’emotional exhaustion’ is not entirely correct. The exhaustion is not so much emotional in the sense of deep feelings about a love relationship, but more in the sense of contact with friends and relations and the effort they have invested in this. Phos-ac is therefore not usually the remedy for lovesickness, unless the most important aspect of the relationship had been the exchange of ideas, whereby the loss of this contact is the greatest source of grief.

A third variation on the theme can be a longing for a feeling of unity with brothers or friends. A typical Ph-ac situation can be that of identical twins. They are very close to each other; no words are needed to understand each other. Parents and friends are often just outsiders who don’t really understand what goes on between them. Then at one time an outsider, like a partner, may come into their life. Or one of them may want to start to find his own identity. At that point the other one feels a great loss of their former intimate contact.

Another variation might be exhaustion from studying too much. In this aspect there may be a similarity with the other Phosphoricums, but in Ph-ac the exhaustion and the apathy are much more prominent.

Case

(by Willem Woutman)

A woman, aged 32, comes with feelings of depression. The gloomy moods come in waves. She can’t enjoy anything in life and has to tell herself that things can be fun. She becomes apathetic and just stays at home. Her memory is also impaired. Sometimes she does not remember what she is doing half way during a job. She is very easily hurt, very sensitive and sad. She usually stays silent, so that other people will not say anything to her either. That might only hurt her even more. Thoughts keep on going around and around in her head. She thinks of suicide but doesn’t dare to. She sighs a lot.

These complaints started about 4 years ago. This is when a close girlfriend became ill. One and a half years ago her friend died of cancer. She feels very guilty that she could not really be there for her friend. She feels that a part of her has also died, that a ‘twin sister’ has gone. She has received psychotherapy treatment for the depression, and after one year she could finally cry about her loss.

Mind: She is very sensitive and cries when she is alone. She likes to be alone and she also feels very alone. At the same time she is very strong. She feels that she doesn’t know who she is.

Childhood: As a child she was already the odd one out, the ugly duckling. She was teased a lot at school. She was extremely shy and not brave at all. She felt very lonely.

She has two sisters. Her brother died in an accident when she was 6 and nobody at home ever talked about it or showed their grief. She did receive a lot of love at home, but nobody talked about their feelings.

General characteristics:

The menses are very irregular.

Analysis

The depression and apathy make us think of Ph-ac. The original cause of the sadness also fits with the theme of ph-ac according to the group analysis. The sadness is about the loss of a very good friend, a friend who was almost a twin sister to her. We find the same theme earlier in her childhood, when she couldn’t ‘talk’ about the death of her brother. She did not have any ‘contacts’ at school either.

Reaction

After Ph-ac 1 M she was very depressed for three days. It was like a really deep black hole. She even asked a friend to keep an eye on her, because she was afraid that she might commit suicide. After that she improved very quickly. One month later she already feels much less vulnerable and depressed.

Picture of Phosphoricum Acidum

Essence: Desire for unity in contact.

Mind: They have a great desire for contact. They have many friends and relations, with whom they like to talk a lot. If they lose these contacts, they get very upset. They become depressed, indifferent, apathetic. They don’t enjoy life anymore and they can’t think properly. Situations that may cause this state could be, for example, staying away from home, or moving house. When they move house they lose all their old (school) friends, their neighbours and lots of other acquaintances. This makes them feel homesick. They keep thinking of the good old days. The death of a friend can also be the cause of a Phos-ac situation.

Identical twins are another typical example. They have a strong bond together, they often communicate on an intuitive level, without words. Here the problems often start when they begin to grow away from each other.

Study can also be the cause of problems. They may exhaust themselves with their study, until they can’t think anymore and their memory has totally gone.

General characteristics:

Location: right sided.

Physique: tall, thin.

Temperature: cold, sensitive to thunderstorms.

Time: (

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