The 10 Miasm System

One of the most contentious of our theories, one of the most difficult concepts for practitioners to put into practice. Many homoeopaths abandon the idea of miasms as not being useful to them, or being too hard to use in practice.

This also means that in order to try and understand it, the theory has been altered since Hahnemann's day. There are now several models of Miasm.

Hahnemann said that attending to the Miasm was of utmost importance in curing Chronic disease. However due to the confusion over how to classify remedies, how to determine the miasm, it was not adopted by all homoeopaths.

It is often one of the most difficult concepts to teach to students. I have probably found it to be the single most challenging aspect of training - and have tried many different ways to teach it. Some did not work, and some did. In fact I would say that lecturing actually helped me to come to a better understanding of it. Faced with the questions, lack of comprehension, and sometimes frank disbelief of aspiring homoeopaths, it forced me to look at how I applied miasmatic theory in clinic.

We all know that remedies have symptoms. Those symptoms appear from provings, from poisonings, from clinical cures, and sometimes just from theorizing (You would be surprised how often the old homoeopaths like Kent did that). This is easy to understand, and easy, it appears, to use for prescribing.

But then we have miasm - important because it is necessary to address it to get lasting cure of a chronic illness, but difficult to understand as separate component of the case. How do you know what is miasm and what is remedy.

Often practitioners attempt to discern miasm as the pathology that appears in the person’s case, or family. So gonorrhea means Sycosis, TB means Tubercular, Cancer means the miasm of the same name.

However, pathologies do not all present or progress the same way. As an example, you can have cancer that occurs suddenly and progresses rapidly (Acute, Typhoid), that is hidden and non-life threatening/benign (Sycotic), that causes the person to lose weight and burn out (Tubercular) or complete destroy the host’s system (Syphilis).

And in cases that did not yet present with pathology, or had obvious pathology in their family history, or perhaps did not know such history….what to do with those people.

So for me, I had to find a method that allowed me to apply miasmatic classification to all patients, regardless of the stage of their illness, of their knowledge of their family history, and regardless of which one of the thousands of remedies I wanted to prescribe. The method had to be applicable pre-pathology, and apply to all medicines.

Which is why Sankaran’s method really appealed to me. The miasm and the problem intersect to form the state, which is matched to a remedy. In fact Miasm directly lead me to specific and sometimes remedies otherwise unknown to me.

So miasm could be separated out of the case, but also could be seen directly affecting the main problem of the patient. This meant it could be seen as the reaction, conscious strategy, or effect on the person’s life. By asking questions along this line miasm could be more easily solicited rather than guessed at. Just like the complaint itself, the patient could tell you what their miasm was (in a manner of speaking).

Another thing that appealed to me about a 10 miasm system, was that instead of stretching several miasms over one remedy you had enough concepts to have different miasms.

MIASMATIC CLASSIFICATIONS

(reference: Rajan Sankaran, System of Homeopathy & An Insight into Plants vol I)

The Three Original Miasms

PSORA

A difficult situation where one has to struggle in order to succeed. There is anxiety with doubts about his ability, but he is hopeful and failure does not mean the end of the world. A struggle to stand on ones own two feet. The task is well within his reach. Some effort made, and it will be accomplished.
Optimism. Making the effort. Getting it done.
Give up easily. Despair of recovery. Lack of self confidence.
Functional pathologies.
Poverty/Wealth. Materialsim. Greed.
Assimilation/Elimination. Poor nutrition. Poor immunity – frequent colds.
Never well since flu, infections, parasites, sprains and injuries.
Easy spraining of joints. Weakness of connective tissues.
Ailments after change or upheaval. Difficulty adapting to change.


Remedies: Sulphur, Psorinum, Calc, Lyc, Cuprum

SYCOSIS

Fixed irredemiable weakness within. The person tends to cope with it or hide it from others. He accepts his limitations and tries to cover them up.
Fixed in their ways. Rigid ideas. Ritualistic behaviour.
Hypersensitive reaction to many things, so their life is restricted.
Guilt. Remorse. Self-reproach. Fear of being exposed.
Asthma. Soft or pedunculated Warts. Neuroses. Overgrowth. Moles.
Catarrh of bladder. Suppressed gonorrhoea. Horny callosities. Hardness of prostate.
Weeping on being spoken to. Aliments from anticipation. Anxiety before an engagement.
Always washing their hands. Fear before an examination. Delusion pursued. Timidity about appearing in public. Introverted.
Discharges stain indelibly. Condylomata. Benign tumors.
Avoids things rather than faces them. Accepts things they cannot change.
Catarrh of bladder from suppressed gonorrhoea. Hardness of prostate.
Tender horny callosities on soles of feet.
Discharges stain indelibly fast.
Submission. Accomodation. Manipulation. Adaption.
Hormonal imbalances – masculine women, feminine men.
Hair on unwanted parts. Fishy smelling discharges. Excessive catarrh.
Nail biting. Nappy rashes.
Amelioration in the evening or at night. Night owls.

Remedies: Copaiva, Med, Mangifera, Puls, Sabadilla, Thuja, Silicea, Nat-sulph, Sil

SYPHILIS

Situation is beyond salvage. Complete hopelessness and despair. Desperate efforts to change or destroy the situation. Health deteriorates. Cannot cope with anything, not even himself. Death is the only way out.
Has committed an unpardonable crime.
Homicide. Suicide. Self destructive behaviour like alcoholism. Catatonic withdrawal. Total indifference.
Captain of a sinking ship.
Ulcers. Heart attack. Psychoses. Paralysis. Necrosis.
Always discontented. Disposed to become a criminal without remorse.
Morbid impulses. Anxiety with suicidal disposition. Mental symptoms come on during perspiration.
Abscesses, esp. those hard to mature. Sunken nose. Injected cornea.
Ulcers > warmth. Ulcers with painful margins.
Inflammation and degeneration of the bones.
Threatened gangrene with blueness of the part.
Destruction. Homocide. Despair. Psychosis. Devastation.
Things have become impossible to live with.

Remedies: Merc sol, Syphilinum, Aurum, Baryta carb, Huang-nan, Leptandra, Echinacea, Clematis erecta, Lachesis, Hepar sulph, Dendroaspis polyepsis






The Two Later Miasms

TUBERCULAR

Intense oppression and exploitation with a desire for change. Must do things in an intense and hectic way in order to break free.
Old age is narrowing in on him. Has little time to live. Lots of things left to accomplish. Works at a hectic pace. Racing against time.
Caught. Suffocated. Compressed. Oppression.
Burnt out. Going towards total destruction.
Like a man trapped in a very narrow tunnel.
Tuberculosis. Asthma. Eczema. Allergies.
Temper tantrums, especially to get attention.
Wanders from place to place – intense restlessness.
Intense dissatisfaction with their lives.
Aversion to routine. Craves change.
Strong feelings of being romantically unfulfilled. Many affairs out of boredom.
Fear of boredom. Cannot stick to one thing. Needs new things all the time.
Cosmopolitan.
Burned out from desire to do too much. Wants to experience everything before they die.


Remedies: Abrotanum, Acalypha-indica, Agraphis, Tub bov, Baccilinum, Drosera, Calc-phos, Balsam-p, Phos, Tarentula

CANCER

Weakness and incapacity within. Needs to perform exceedingly well and to live up to very high expectations. Reaction is a superhuman effort stretching himself beyond the limits of his capacity.
A continuous and prolonged struggle which seems to have no end.
Failure means death and destruction.
Unable to accomplish many of the things he planned to.
Tasks seem out of his reach, but there is the slightest hope if he stretches himself beyond his capabilities.
No control over his life anymore. His life is slipping away.
Things will get destroyed if they do not keep control
Chaos. Order. Perfectionist. Fastidious. Must have total control of surroundings.
Cancer. Diabetes.
Impulse to jump from a height.
Cannot rest when things are not in their proper place.
Ailments from rudeness of others.

Remedies: Anacardium, Anhalonium, Bellis-p, Carcinonsinum, Nitric acid, Arg-nit, Ignatia, Staph, Conium, Arsenicum, Kail-arsenicum.

The Five New Miasms

ACUTE

An acute threat, and the reaction is strong and instinctive.
Instinctive. Uncomplicated.
Suddenness, then nothing. Sudden great danger.
The threat is too big.
Must escape or run away. Being beside oneself with anxiety.
Panic. Shock. Stupefied. Immobile. Terror.
As if a bomb explodes or there is an earthquake.
Helplessness. Run for your life.
Safety once the danger is passed.
Panic attacks. Sudden manifestations of illness. Apoplexy. Mania. Fever.
To kill as an act of self defence
Voice lost from injuries to the head. Traumatism. Violent pains.
Threatening abortion. Cardiac anguish. Anguish during labor.
Reflex actions. Alarm. Storms.

Remedies: Aconite, Arnica, Belladonna, Chocolate, Crot-tig, Lyssin, Stramonium, Veratrum alb, Camphor

TYPHOID (Acute-Psoric)

A critical situation which if handled properly for a critical period, will end in total recovery. The reaction is an intense struggle against it.
Impatient. Demanding. Competitive.
Bed is sinking. Losing position of comfort and security.
Sudden loss or business failure.
Do or die. Intense short effort. Grab it all right now. Wants quick results.
Taking chances recovering lost ground.
Given up. Sinking. No effort. No action of will. Profound exhaustion.
As if your house is on fire.
Crash in the stock market.
Able to rest at the end if you can just make it that far.
Subacute problems. Crisis. Emergency.
Demanding help. Clinging.
Desire to go home. < When away from home.
Continued fevers with muscular soreness. Continued fevers run very high.
Continued fevers with headaches. Pneumonia. Cerebral fevers.
Fear of being sold. Talks always of business. Busy delirium.
Diarrhoea from fever.
Dreams of physical exertion.
Desires to change their position. Anxiety drives them out of bed.


Remedies: Bryonia, Nux-vom, Rhus-tox, Cham, Hyos, Baptisia, Paris quad, Nux-mosh, Pyrogen, Phos-ac, Carbo-veg.


RINGWORM (Psoric-Sycotic)

Alternates between periods of struggle with anxiety about success and periods of despair and giving up.
Makes the effort but slides down again.
Theme is of unsuccessful efforts. Effort cannot be sustained for success.
The task is beyond easy reach. Always trying but not succeeding.
Gives up hope. Just sits and does nothing. No more trying.
Situation of a woman trying to lose weight.
Hopeful for awhile, then gives up for awhile, then hopeful again, then gives up again.
Dry or Moist Herpes. Herpes which stings. Tinea. Large warts often on the hands. Hard or inflamed warts. Acne. General discomfort.
Irritation – irritability that occurs during the daytime.

Remedies: Calc-sulph, Calc-sil, Mag-sulph, Teucrium, Sars, Dulc, Tarax, Viol-t, Chrysar.

MALARIA ( Acute-Sycotic)

Acute feeling of threat comes up intermittently in phases, between which is an underlying chronic fixed feeling of being deficient.
Sudden acute manifestations that come up from time to time, followed by periods of quiescence.
A feeling of weakness which the person accepts.
Periodic attacks.
Dependent but unable to do anything about it.
Feels hindered and obstructed. Feels unfortunate and stuck.
Fear of being injured, of being attacked.
Worried about the future.
Alternates between excitement and acceptance.
Suppressed anger. Contemptuous.
Feels things are not good enough, are unworthy.
Limited. Imprisoned. Miserable. Brooding. Sentimental.
Phobic, paroxysmal fears.
Migraines, neuralgia, worms, colic, colitis, rheumatism, meniere’s , asthma.
Stuck in a dependent position, powerless but attacked from time to time
Ravenous appetite esp. from worms. Respiration is impeded during palpitations.
Sticking in the epigastrium impedes respiration.


Remedies: Berberis-v, Capsicum, Cina, China, Colocynth, Spigelia, Nat-mur, Ant-crude



LEPROSY ( Tubercular- Syphilitic)

Intense oppression, hopelessness and a desire for change.
Can no longer make himself useful.
Difficulty relating to people (younger people)
Cast off by society and by family. Displaced and pushed into a corner.
No hope left, only death.
Intense sense of isolation. Abandoned. Forsaken. Repudiated.
Mocked. Criticised. Looked down upon. Hunted down. Poisoned. Destroyed.
Dirty. Disgusting.
Suicidal. Homicidal. Tears himself. Biting. Despair.
An outcast, with no hope of being normal, so they isolate themselves and feel disgust for themselves.
Sadism and perversion.
Gangrene. Paralysis. Warts are withered.
Dreams of walking amongst ruins.
Inclination to uncover. Avoids the sight of people.
Suicidal disposition to throw himself from a height.
Desires to travel. Desires to kill. Contemptuous. Destructive.

Remedies: Secale, Hura, Ocimum-s, Aloe, Cicuta, Mandragora, Curare, Iodum