Yearning for a soulmate : a case of oncorhynchus tschawytscha (salmon)

 This 79 year old woman has been coming to me for treatment for the last twelve years. I have treated her with many remedies, Arsenicum, Rhus-tox, Lycopodium, Ignatia, Tuberculinum, Calc-phos, Hyoscyamus, Nat-carb, Platina, Mercury. There has been some improvement, but never what seemed to me a substantial change. She is generally suffering from indigestion and allergies to food. She says her liver feels off; she has had infectious hepatitis. She has indigestion nearly every morning, which is much worse from various foods like wheat, smoked foods, coffee, fried food, chicken, eggs. At this visit the patient is wearing rings on every finger.

 “I’m inclined to start at the end of my story rather than at the beginning. I feel slow and sluggish, no energy and my nose drips like a tap, profuse water. I had it cauterised but I still suffer from allergies and constant running. I wake up with palpitations. My memory is difficult; I can’t remember names or what I was going to say. I feel bloated and distended and I take bi carb, which helps occasionally. I feel extremely hungry and feel much worse when I am hungry. Much better when I eat.”
 The patient always complains to me of being rejected by her daughters, yet her daughters tell me that she is extremely controlling of their affairs and plays one off against the other. There is a constant interplay of the patient complaining about her daughters and switching sides amongst them, and the daughters protesting that she is overcontrolling. The patient continually says that her daughters do not love her or pay enough attention to her and she feels rejected. Sometimes she feels isolated and unloved and tends to sigh frequently.
 Loving to travel, the patient has been all over the world, Africa, Asia, South America and she goes away at every possible opportunity.
 “As a child there was no warmth in the family. I was never hugged or kissed, never loved by my mother. As a child I felt rejected by her. She didn’t show me any love. I felt I could have murdered her. She used to manipulate and control me. My father was warm and loving and I loved him a lot. I always felt lonely in the family, I messed up my love affair and ended up marrying someone like my mother.
 I fell in love with a man when I was 18. I felt he was my real soul mate, but it didn’t work out and we had to be separated. Although I’m married, I’ve always thought back about him.”
 The patient relates that she has many thoughts about sex; in fact, a constant dwelling on sex. As a teenager she was highly sexual and had numerous short affairs with quite a few men. Her dreams are usually sexual.
 She has receding gums; profuse salivation; tearing of her eyes and frequent urination, especially at night. She has bouts of diarrhea with constipation at night on waking. At times she has vertigo with a swimming sensation and feels she is in a roller-coaster. She hates the damp weather, which makes her feel worse, ill at ease and uncomfortable. Overall, she feels better in the spring.
 An animal lover, she is really sympathetic to them. “I cry if I see animals hurt or any kind of cruelty to animals.”
 “I have a problem with a neighbour who has a leaking tap that always floods my flat. It has been flooded a few times but I can’t get him to fix it.”
 Rx: Oncorhynchus tschawytscha (Salmon) 30C, 2 doses.
 FOLLOW UP: The patient is feeling much better. The lachrymation, salivation and rhinitis are much better. Indigestion has improved vastly. In general her symptoms are better and she feels good in herself. There has been a big change in her relationship with her daughters, who called to tell me how nice she has become. The patient’s overall improvement has continued for over two years.
Discussion 
 Oncorhynchus tschawytscha, proved by my students in The Dynamis School, was made from a wild Chinook salmon using eggs, sperm and blood. The remedy embodies the whole cycle of life. The wild salmon circles thousands of miles of ocean to return to the river of its birth. There, it spawns another generation before it dies. The salmon’s trip upstream is a struggle to overcome obstacles and requires extreme muscle control and strength.
 Provers experienced deep, intense grief and sadness, not knowing where they were going but longing and searching for a home. Conversely, they felt trapped in the house, desired to walk for miles and wanted to travel great distances. There was yearning for a soulmate, for finding true love and great disappointment for lost love. Control is a big issue in the remedy, either loss of control or overcontrol, especially a mother’s tendency to control her children.
 Having babies is a dominant feature of Oncorhynchus with many symptoms related to conception, infertility and high sexual energy. Water figures prominently in the proving in many physical symptoms and dreams. Interestingly, all sorts of floods occurred in the provers’ houses as sinks, toilets and tubs overflowed.
 Rings are present in the proving, in dreams and as jewelry, symbolizing both the theme of weddings and the circular motion of the salmon’s life journey. Additionally, provers showed great sympathy for animals.
 Full proving information on Oncorhynchus tschawytscha will appear in Dynamic Provings, Volume 2 to be published in late 2000.
 Jeremy Sherr lives and practices homoeopathy in Malvern, England and travels the world, teaching students, treating patients and spreading love for homoeopathy.
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