5.11.1 Argentum nitricum, Case 1
A 30 year old man complains about pressure on the chest and many fears. He is afraid of criticism and afraid of failure. It started about 3 years ago after his house had been burgled. When he and his wife came home one evening they discovered that there were burglars in the house. He did not dare to go inside and went to the neighbours to call the police. He had been too afraid to confront the burglars while he had always said that if anything like that were to happen he would ‘teach them a lesson’. The strange thing was that his wife hadn’t been afraid at all and this is what irked him, ‘because a man should be able to protect his wife’. All this happened at a time when he had been very busy at work because he was about to be promoted to head of department.
After these events he started to develop vague pains in his stomach, accompanied by much belching and flatulence. He often woke up in a fright at around 4 am, which later on turned into palpitations with a pressing pain in his chest, worse lying on the left side. It was also worse when he thought about it or when he thought about his work. He is always in a hurry, especially at work. He had to spend some time off work because the fears and the palpitations became too bad. He was afraid in restaurants and shops and afraid that someone would criticise his work.
He couldn’t bear having people around him at work, afraid that he couldn’t get away quickly if he suddenly started to feel bad. He also had a fear of narrow spaces (3) and a fear of planes.
He likes the type of work he is doing but he doesn’t like the mentality of his colleagues, they are very bureaucratic. He likes socialising but has become more reserved since his complaints started. He still plays football and likes to take the lead.
He is quite closed and often bottles up his feelings for days. He explains that he feels very insecure deep inside, although he comes across as someone who is very self assured. He likes to be prepared before he meets people, tries to imagine what they might think and feel.
He has a fear of heights and can’t stand being late. He sometimes dreams about quarrelling with his colleagues.
Generals
Weather: cold, and > fresh air (3).
Time: < 11 am.
Desires: sweet (3), spices, cheese, meat, vegetables, milk.
Aversion: potatoes.
Food: < chocolate.
Sleep: good; on left side.
Analysis
The pattern of fears and tensions is a classic example of Argentum nitricum: fear of heights, narrow spaces, fear of disease, fear of failure, anticipation etc. The palpitations and general tension complete the picture.
But it would be interesting to see whether we can find any of the themes of the group analysis in this case.
First of all there is the theme of failure, which is common to all the metals. Next we see that he wants to be special and different, he wants to be head of department, which is typical of the Silver series (There is too little evidence of heaviness in this story to indicate the Gold series).
The stage we are looking for can be deduced from the incident of the burglary: he can’t put his words into practice. He had a certain image of himself, but this image proves to be invalid, he can no longer maintain the ideas he had about himself, which is typical of stage 11. And so we get to Argentum.
But there are also several symptoms that don’t belong to Argentum, like the stomach complaints and the eructations for instance. These are typical Nitricum complaints, as is the fear of disease and the fear of narrow spaces. The burglary might initially remind us of Arsenicum, but it is also a Nitricum symptom, as reflects the theme of loss belonging to stage 15.
Other Argentum symptoms: fear of being criticised about his work, fear of heights, -> sweets, -> sweets.
Nitricum symptoms: fear of narrow spaces, planes, restaurants, -> cheese, fresh air.
Reaction
One month after Argentum nitricum he feels 60% calmer. He went back to work 2 weeks after taking the remedy. He had a dream that he had the courage to confront someone else for the first time since ages. A year later he was still doing well and since then I haven’t heard from him.