Case 1.2: Cubeba
By A. Leupen
It concerns a woman of 26 years old. She is trained as a teacher in Dramatic Training. She comes because of psoriasis. The skin condition has worsened for four months. It was on its way out, but the abnormalities increased again after a sore throat infection. During observation we see extensive lesions all over the body, especially arms, back of hand, instep, back and abdomen. The hairy head also participates. Clinical diagnosis: psoriasis guttata. The nails are normal. There are no joint problems.
The laryngitis showed the following picture: stabbing pain, worse swallowing. Need for hot drinks. Mounted gland in the left corner of the jaw. She was very tired, after 5 minutes of walking already tired. As a child she also often had throat problems, which was accompanied by loss of voice.
Medical history:
Born with an open palate. Surgery when she was one and four years old.
As a child she often had a sore ear and a sore throat.
Once she had gonorrhoea.
Generals: need for warmth, nevertheless lightly dressed.
Inspires with effort. No night sweats. Rain sometimes causes a feeling of pressure in the head. Sun: no influence. She loves the sea.
Desires: pasta (3); garlic (3); onion (3); tomatoes (3); savoury cake (3); cheese (3); olives (3); brown rice (3); millet (3); minced meat (3); sweet (3); chocolate (3); spicy (3); sambal (2); ice cream (2); buttermilk (2); vegetables (1); nuts (1); fruit (1).
Aversions: fish (3); Dutch pot (3); fatty meat (2); meat (2); milk (2); acid (1).
Drinks a lot, especially coffee, beer and wine.
Chairwalk: normal.
Sleep and dream:
Sleep: sleeps well in and through. Sleep position: right side. Talk during sleep. Gets going slowly in the morning.
Dream: she is building a large tower, as a backdrop. She ends up on the balustrade, she gets scared, doesn't know how to get back. A girl she knows is holding her. A teacher says: "Your fear is not real, you play it".
Dream (in the week of the laryngitis): a group of people are waiting for someone, a man who directs dogs. An important person. She meets this man, nobody else sees him. He comes to her, starts shaking her arm. "You have to move". There was also a large black and white cat.
Dream: she is haunted by two vulgar girls, aggressive, screaming. She runs away. A cat comes to lie with her, a very big cat. She finds him scary and pushes him away.
Menses: regular cycle. For menstruation pain in the lower back. First day a lot of blood loss, lasts 3 days. Rarely pain. Does not use oral contraception.
Fears: as a child fear of spiders, wolves and snakes.
Did not dare as a child with her head under the blanket. Dreamed as a child that she would end up in a large jute bag.
Biography and current situation: schisiskind. As a small child she spoke unclearly, only her mother could understand her. She resisted speech therapy, she didn't want to be any different from the other children. Often wore braces from her 12th to 17th year. She was not bullied.
At the moment she doesn't have a steady relationship. She falls in love with bound men or men who don't want bonding. For a long time she didn't trust men, had an aversion to physical contact. Now she would like to have a relationship again.
She is now in a creative education. She has a strong performance anxiety, she lives there under a strong performance pressure. She feels dependent on teachers and directors, she wants to appreciate them. However, there is a norm at the school that you have to find your own performance good. In the period before the psoriasis became active, she felt ugly, she condemned herself.
She often feels insecure. She can be jealous of others who manifest themselves fiercely and confidently.
Analysis
As we know, psoriasis is a deep disorder. What struck me in this case was the story behind the symptoms.
I see an insecure young woman, insecure in relationships, about her appearance, about her performance on the dramatic upset'thing. It is striking that she has a skin condition that further strengthens her insecurity and feeling of ugliness, psoriasis. The dreams also breathe an atmosphere of being under pressure and being chased. In the case study we find arguments for all kinds of means: Pulsatilla, Zincum, Anacardium, Calcium sulfuricum, Sodium muriaticum, Thuja, Staphysagria, Medorrhinum. However, I decided to give a small drug, I was not satisfied with the larger drugs. What struck me was the psoriasis with gonorrhoea in the past, this combination reminded me of Cubeba. I had also read a case in which a psoriasis patient healed after Cubeba, and a few months later had an angina that also healed with Cubeba. In the above patient the psoriasis was aggravated after a throat infection. I gave Cubeba 200 K.
Follow-up: after 5 weeks I saw the patient again, I could not believe my eyes. The skin was almost completely clean, what remained were pigment shifts after the psoriasis. She still feels tired, but psychologically stronger. She panics less as an "authority" that says to her, she feels stronger in her shoes.
I've never seen psoriasis react so quickly, I doubted whether there wasn't a nice suppression by the Cubeba.
However, these doubts were allayed by the next dream she told me, a dream of healing. Dream: a beautiful female cat had to hide, she was hiding in the belly.
of a stray cat. The stray cat was a sweet animal. Both cats were black. At a certain moment she heard the beautiful cat meow, the head of the beautiful cat came out of the throat of the stray cat.
I saw this dream as a metamorphosis dream, she threw off her old skin and got a nice new one. I waited then. At the second follow-up consultation (10 weeks after the Cubeba) the skin turned out to be even better.