Case 3.2: Cactus
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Sangeeta, a blind Hindu girl (anophtalmia on one side and microphtalmia on the other) born in July 1985, was abandoned at the age of six months and was adopted in France at the age of eleven months. She never reacted to her name; she seemed deaf or suffering from autism. Three psychiatrists diagnosed her as autistic. She started walking at the age of two. That was the time they brought her to me (1987). Each time she used to come to my office she would immediately start to play with the copper handles of my drawers which make a rattling noise. Which meant that she was not deaf! She responded very well to Antimonium tartaricum for minor ailments but not to other chronic remedies. Plumbum, Ignatia and Iodium did influence her psychological development. She used to say ‘io, io’ whenever she wanted water, but apart from this she did not say anything. On the road she liked to walk on her own and used to get angry if someone took her hand. She only wanted to drink milk from a bottle.
Her mental picture
She loved playing in water.
She hated being held, but she liked being fondled. When one did not expect it she used to come and cuddle herself in one’s arm. She wanted to discover everything on her own. She did not like somebody guiding her hand. She used to do what had been forbidden, like splashing water while taking a bath. According to the mother she was jolly; she would laugh very loudly while splashing water. She cried when scolded. She did not fight back. If someone would take her toy she would take another one (until I gave Ignatia in May 1988 and from that time she developed a sense of personal hygiene).
On 25-01-1990, (we had already studied Cactus) her mother’s story attracted my attention: ‘When she does something, she does it because she wants to do it, because it suits her. If you give her a toy, she does not show any interest towards it, until one day in her own time she starts to play with it. Whatever she learned she did because she wanted to learn it, and not because we were teaching her. Although she likes to be complimented she won’t repeat the same action unless she decides to do so. She likes to be complimented when she has finished her game. If she is complimented during the game she will give up.’ (The prover is satisfied although he doubted when the show was over.)
Wasn’t this similar to the feeling of the prover: to act deliberately? Added to that, the symptoms of joking and the aversion to be held (sensation as if whole body is encased) made me think that this young girl could be needing Cactus. The fact that she gave up her work whenever she felt she was being observed could mean that she wanted to ‘create her flower hidden from sight: during the night’. Sangeeta used to give up her occupation whenever she was being observed and she only did what she had decided to do. She was not sure of her action and of her decision.
Remedy: Cactus 12CH
On the 30-05-1990 her mother said: ‘We gave her a dose in the morning and in the evening she started to have some erratic behaviour. The following day it was so bad, it looked like some sort of exorcism; the devil wanted to leave her body, she was barking. Two days later, she started to say ‘mama’ with a very husky and unnatural voice, as if it was coming from deep inside. Then she started to pronounce more and more words. Now she talks like a baby, but can express what she wants: Dad, pipi, Dad, come here. She names object, she sings songs. She babbles all day long and is making a lot of progress. Everybody makes her talk.
Since then she received six doses of high potency whenever progress was slowing down and lower potencies were given by the mother during acute phases.
In 1991, the three paediatricians who diagnosed her as suffering from autism, unanimously decided that they were wrong. She was counting, narrating fairy tales, singing, recognising all shapes, all sounds. She could narrate to her mother an entire fairy tale!
Towards the end of 1992 she started primary school (normally for children of six year of age, she was seven). She learnt Braille in two months: she was the quickest to learn. She was obedient. She played the piano and she had an extraordinary memory: she was able to reproduce any melody she had heard and she did the accompaniment on organ. She used to say: ‘l was in the sky, in an aeroplane when I came from India. When I become big I will have a child in my abdomen and will deliver it at the nursing home.’
Nowadays she is doing fine and studying as a normal child.