A case of Ruthenium

This is the case of G. a 37 year old man, who is married with two children aged 8 and 4 years old. He came to see me for frequent colds and high fevers (over 39°C), with sudden onset and “brutal chill”, since childhood. He is worse after hot drinks, better after perspiration. He is not particularly bothered by the physical symptoms or by pain, however, he feels limited by his complaints as he cannot work or function normally. He is an office worker and is employed by an advertising company, where he prints leaflets, brochures, labels etc. He has higher ambitions but did not have the motivation for studying further.

As a child, he had a troubled relationship with his parents. They had a small farm and he was asked to work hard, which he did not like. He was interested in travelling, discovering new places, countries etc. He felt free after leaving his family for his secondary studies at college. He went to a sport school for he was good at many sports, particularly cycling and more especially track cycling, which is more about performance and less about money. “Track cycling is a collective sport, where every member of the team works for the best rider. There is no established leader, on the day everyone supports the best rider.” G. is not a champion but is very perseverant; he rides 100 kilometres as daily practice. When he was 15 years old, he biked to school everyday, rain or shine, which displeased his mother; she thought it was foolish. His best cycling experience was a mountain marathon in Switzerland; a 115 kilometres race with vertical drops of 2400 metres, which lasted 11 hours. He likes applause, being the centre of attention, and talking about his performances. He left competitive sport voluntarily: “Nobody kicked my bottom, nobody boxed my ears.”  

He has different ideas about life from his parents. Since he has been away from home, their relationship has improved. He spends time with his children, mostly with sport activities; cycling, cross country skiing, downhill skiing, ice skating, and so on. His children are perseverant and strong-willed too. G. thinks that excelling in sport is easier for them than it was for him; he has to put a lot more effort into it to get the same results as his children, who he now trains. He practices sport under pressure while his children are much more relaxed and spontaneous. He has built a pub, which he designed mostly himself, with some input from an architect.

He sleeps well. His dreams are about: falling into water as a child; new experiences in his daily life; cycling (after having raced the previous day) – after receiving a new bicycle, he dreamt about riding the whole night.

He likes yellow, orange, and red colours. He has no problem with food; desires meat of any kind, with vegetables.

Analysis:
His perseverance, his need for pressure and for support, and his sporting activities point to the silver series, despite his lack of artistic sense. He is a worker but with higher ambitions, which excludes him from the ferrum series. He is not a manager, not a real leader in sport or in his professional life; he does not possess the leader’s bird’s eye view. Despite his liking for team work in small group, at work or in sport, for applause and attention, and for being his children’s trainer, G. has no features from the gold series; he sometimes makes promises he does not fulfil and needs cooperation. All this indicates stages 7 to 9. He is strong willed, perseverant, needs exertion and pressure, which points more to stage 8. Consequently, I prescribed Ruthenium 1 M.

Follow–up: he is healthy, he feels good. He has not had a cold during the last 11 months. He has finished building his pub and has opened it. He works there with his wife. He feels empowered by his work and is very satisfied with it.

Group analysis according to Jan Scholten:

A persevering sportsman. 

Essence: forcing yourself to present your ideas.

The remedy name of Ruthenium comes from the Latin name of Russia: Ruthenia.

As most people from the Soviet block, Russians are a symbol of extreme strength.

In 1972, Czechoslovakia won the ice hockey championship in Prague. Our team overpowered the Russian team - Zbornaja Komanda*. I was eight years old and heard everywhere: “the Russians will go to Siberia”. I understood they had lost, but why Siberia? I understood later: for strengthening their strength!

*Zbornaja Komanda is the name of the Russian team, which consisted mainly of players from the Soviet Army team.

Pavol Tibensky

tibus@stonline.sk

Illustration by Vicki Mathison