Medorrhinum is wonderful archetype of “collective unconscious”

Medorrhinum is one of the wonderful archetypal energy medicines of homoeopathic materia medica. Archetypes are wonderful contents of collective unconscious of humanity.Dr. Jung identified many archetypal images in human psyche. Anima and animus, persona and shadow, primordial mother earth, old wise man is his often discussed archetypes in psychology.Dr Jung’s “analytical psychology” had miraculously and tremendously influenced the domain of medicine, social psychology, literature , mythology , religion and spirituality.

What is archetype? Many definitions can me given or derived of an archetype. The field of archetype is so vast that it is difficult to limit it with one definition. The whole human activity from birth to death with its various religious social, rituals, ceremonies and customs comes under the domain of archetype. Jung called the archetypes by various names such as “imagos”, primordial images but archetype is most accepted and widely used term. An archetype may be defined as an inherited, unlearned, natural tendency or pre-deposition to do things and activities in a certain fixed way. It is the innate and natural tendency of libido to flow and travel in a particular direction. It is not like water that always flows from high places to low places. Libido has multitude of directions depending on the dominant archetype of the personality. A personality may have many sub type archetypes also. Like Sigmund Freud’s “biological instincts” an archetype has no fixed shape or form. It acts as an “organizing principle” of our life activities. It works the same way as Freud’s instincts, in our minds. It is indefinite passionate yearning of mind to do things in a passionate, enthusiastic and fitful way. We can satisfy this eternal yearning by doing certain specific tasks and professions not otherwise.

Every homoeopathic medicine has its on set way of working in certain fixed ways on certain type of persons. Medicine or drug is the bigger archetype and materia medica in the form of collection of different medicines is also collection of different types of sub archetypes of medicines. Let us analyze the main characteristics of Medorrhinum archetype. Which are the personality characteristics in which Medorrhinum is seen to be running and flowing in energy form?

Passionate / wild and fitful behavior

Medorrhinum personality is very passionate and fitful in behavior. It moves in extremes, from one extreme to another. Intense love may convert into passionate hatred. Buoyancy may yield to laziness and languor. Sexual passion may yield to romanticism, Erotomania and fancifulness. Med archetype sees life in black and white. There is no mean position .Either there is friend or foe. There is tremendous flow of libido in med person. He can read and paint for hours at a stretch. He can do athletics at a stretch. It may take any direction. It will not be ordinary slow work but “frantic enthusiasm”. He is very wild and crazy in behavior.

Nail biting

Nail biting is marvelous defense mechanism of med person. You can spot typical med person by this habit only. This is a technique invented by med person to ward off his internal deep “unconscious fears and anxieties” .These are not day to day ordinary life fears or anxieties but phobias and neurotic anxieties. Med person does not need any instrument to cut his nails. He indulges obsessively in eating the flesh of his fingers. This shows the extent of repression of the uncherished feelings and thoughts in his unconscious mind. His unconscious mind has invented an outlet to give to the ugly and dark side of his personality. His conscious mind i.e. ego has no control over this process of nail biting. This speaks the “shadow” part of his personality. The “shadow” (unconscious mind) part of med person is the darkest in whole materia medica. The med mind is burial ground or graveyard of many unwanted desires, unfulfilled wishes, images and evil thoughts.

Déjà vu

Déjà vu is very archetypal image of med archetype. There is sudden sensation in the mind of med person as if I had seen this before or it had already happened to me. There is dazed feeling, a far off sensation, as though things done today occurred a weak ago. Momentarily, his entire conscious ego leaves him and he is dazed and stunned. I have been to this place before. Things happened weak ego seems to be happening today. This déjà vu sensation is great way or “window” to collective unconscious of his past lives. I encountered with a child who used to describe the place of his previous birth. On his way to school on bus, whenever the bus used to pass through a particular place he used to ask the driver to stop the bus so that he may see his previous birth place and the school where he used to read. Such type of bizarre sensations is very common with med people. Med person is very liable for the erupting of his unconscious mind in many ways. The collective unconscious totally grips or overwhelms the conscious mind. What we call “demoniac possession” actually is an overwhelming grip of our conscious mind or ego by our collective unconscious mind. The devil figures like monsters, dragons, demons, bhoots that the person sees are nothing but “shadows” of the collective unconscious mind.

Hunted and pursued

This feeling of hunting and being pursued by someone is very prominent feature of the psyche of med person. The med person intensely feels as if someone (demon or bhoot) is following him from behind especially when alone in dark. He starts walking hurriedly by looking behind. Sometimes he hears voices or foot steps from behind as if someone is walking behind her or voicing to him by calling her name. During these episodes when her unconscious totally overwhelms her ego or conscious mind; she is so terrified that she feels as if dying or going to die. She sees faces that peer at her from behind her or furniture. She feels as if some delicate hand is smoothing her head from front to back. Many incidents are on record of such type of happenings. There is no person that is actually following him or her except his “collective unconscious”. Our past is never dead. Our collective unconscious constantly follows us wherever we go. We can neither avoid nor run away from our collective unconscious. We will have to understand and have face to face with our past. This is only way to avoid this horrible and terrible unconscious and dead past.

Shadow

The “shadow” archetype of unconscious mind is peculiar feature of med personality. He has great fascination for “dark and dirty” side of life. Sex, lasciviousness, lewdness, evil, demons, monsters, evil doing, dark, dead bodies, graveyards, dreams of dead, night mares all constitutes the dark structural elements of his psyche. The more he denies this dark side of his ego under various influences like mother, religion or superego, the darker, toxic and venomous it becomes. Med has tremendous libido in his body. His natural urges are very strong. The ego through the natural sexual urges wishes to gratify these urges but the superego forbids these. So there may be constant tug or war or struggle between id and superego in med patients. What the evil man is capable of or can do is stored in unconscious. It starts torture and teasing him in big way. Med archetype is great fond of pornography, blue pictures, adulterous life or adultery, promiscuity due to this dark side of his life. If a girl represses the natural flow of her libido she ultimately lands in nymphomania. If a boy suppresses his priapistic desires he May either become impotent or porno maniac to quench thirst and lust.

There is real vulnerability to become drunkard, alcoholic, gambler. Med is king of addictions. He may be addicted to anything. To go into “excesses and obsessions” is in the nature of Medorrhinum archetype. He may be obsessed lover, obsessed girlfriend, passionate writer, or porno master, internet addict, and jealous share marketer. Wherever she or he is she will go into excesses and extremes. Even his thirst and hunger are ravenous. He is adventurous. He adventures into dark side of human life. He is embodiment of darker side of human being or humanity as whole. “Love of the forbidden” is almost keynoted of med psyche. This is another dimension of the dark side of his personality or his “shadow”. Whatever the boys and girls are forbidden by the parents becomes the part and parcel of the dark material of their psyche. It is why the children have great propensity to see the dark side because it was the most forbidden. The shadow or collective unconscious is the burial ground of our bad and dirty feelings and thoughts and these never die. Whenever they get chance they tickle down into our ego or conscious part.

Fear of dark

Medorrhinum is listed in 3 grades in the repertory under the rubric “fear of dark”. Why Medorrhinum fears darkness? It is because fear also constitutes one of the dark elements of his psyche or unconscious mind. The med patient fears fear because it may overwhelm him at any time like a demon. Med patient can not sleep in the dark room. He will always keep the lights on while sleeping. If the light goes off suddenly at night he cries for light and becomes very anxious. Fear is greatest representative of the dark side of human psyche.