Homeopathy and the integration of feelings -4- Syphilitic Miasm -

Considered by Dr Hahnemann to be the second of the chronic miasms (next to psora) is syphilis. I think the miasm of syphilis belongs to a group of miasms which also includes tuberculosis and leprosy. These three miasms all have the feeling of being “unable” to be oneself. In each of these this disposition is experienced in a different way. With the tubercular miasm it is like "I am unable to be myself where I am because here I am restricted even suffocated, and so I must get to a different place and there I may be able to be myself". Because this attitude eventually becomes free floating, then in getting somewhere else they will invariably experience the same thing and have the urge to move again. In this the tubercular miasm creates a hectic disposition of always being on the move, as described in the materia medica.


With leprosy the person has the belief that they cannot be and accept themselves because they consider who they are to be disgusting. This might have come about because of something they have done or they may have become convinced of it by others. The strength at this attitude corresponds to the extent it effects them. The person here can be someone who would never do anything even remotely disgusting and as described in the literature they can also develop a great deal of contempt for themselves and others.

The syphilitic stage of psora of being unable to be oneself is expressed in S R Phatak’s description of Syphilinum "Far-away feeling: says he is not himself and he cannot feel like himself, with apathy and indifference to future…loss of memory, does not remember faces, names, events, places etc., but remembers everything previous to his disease…anti social, aversion to company".


Rajan Sankaran describes syphilis

There is no hope.
Task is far beyond my capacity.
Have committed an unpardonable crime.
Highest and sole responsibility.
Taking it on.
Doing the utmost.
Highest position, leader, king.
Complete despair.
Homicide suicide.
Self destructive, like alcoholism.
Catatonic withdrawal, total indifference.
A captain of a sinking ship.
The task is hopeless, but let me do the best I can (Sankarans Schema).


With the syphilis miasm the person is unable to be themselves because they have begun to hate themselves. With this they are understandably very sensitive to being disliked by others around them. We find this feeling of being hated also in the following symptoms;

Enemy, considers everyone (Merc-sol).

Suspicious talking about her, people are.
Delusion laughed at mocked, being (Baryta-carb).

Fear, hanged to be (Platinum) (Dr Chawla).

These remedies are at least partially derived from substances of row 6 of the periodic table of elements. The main feeling common to the remedies derived from this row is also of being hated. With Platinum it is the feeling of being powerless (column 10) and hatred that is suppressed. With the suffering corresponding to Mercury it is the suppression of being treated immorally (column 12) together with the feeling of being hated. The rubric of Mercurius “When taking a walk he felt a strong inclination to catch by the nose strangers whom he met” (Materia Medica Pura), means to treat someone immorally, which is an expression of the non-integration of the feeling of oneself being treated immorally. The difference between the feeling of row 6 and of the syphilis miasm is that in syphilis it is more having come to hate oneself while with row 6 it is the feeling of being hated. The feeling of being hated is healthy because it is real or was originally real and is therefore giving information to the person about how they are feeling. With the syphilis miasm the hate of oneself is an expression of non-acceptance of self. The remedies of row 6 differ from the row above in that while the feeling of row 6 is of being hated with row 5 of the periodic table it is more like the feeling of being criticized, like being insulted.


David Quinn
davidquinn@paradise.net.nz