The skin is the largest single organ in the body and is intimately linked with the immune

system. The doctrine of psora is a constitutional view of how the immune system responds
to infectious diseases of the skin, especially when they are suppressed. The term itself, was
not invented by Hahnemann. It is derived from the Greek and superficially equated with
scabies although it has a more profound meaning.
"The terms, sora and scabies !itch", are much older then Hahnemann and homoeopathy. To
equate the modern term #"scabies acari" with the Greek naturalist#s sora and the itch
diathesis is a grand mistake. The first recorded usage of "sora agria" and "scabies $ugis" was
by the %le&andrine translators who had a much wider definition than the modern term for
scabies acari. 'any have attacked the sora teachings and used the term, scabies, to try and
debunk Hahnemann. (r. Hahnemann was well aware of both the presence of mites and
microorganisms as he included them as carriers of the primary infection of the psoric miasm.
")
The deficiency state is due to inadequate utilisation in the mineral metabolism. *uppression
of skin eruptions activates the particular disposition, shifting to respiratory disorders or
gastrointestinal disease.
The psoric will appear timid or reserved, la& or different+ any possible irritation or transient
e&citement will sooner or later leave him drained !of which his intuition always makes him
aware"+ cold and sensitive, delicate because of his scanty natural resistance+ by nature slow
to resolve or decide as well as to act or achieve+ reflective instead of prompt to act+ full of
an&ieties which give him a mild e&terior and this bring him protection, consideration and
affection, he will complain of poor or insufficient digestion, warmth, skin oiliness, erections,
memory, peace+ from birth he will suffer from nutritional troubles, we can recogni,e him by
his poor development or a disproportionate accumulation of fat, by his feeble cry, this
tendency to be cold, his feeding troubles, his defective bone structure, his late ossification,
dentition and walking. He has caries at an early age, a delicate skin, eruptions, itching, poor
appetite and assimilation, difficult digestion, diarrhoeas, and is intolerant to various foods+
he has loss of minerals, atony, inadequate cellular and organic functions. %s a child he will be
more afraid than the others of leaving home, or that his mother will leave him+ he will
always seek the protection and tutelage of someone superior. In the intellectual realm he
will seek the support of others for his thesis, not only for obvious reasons !like the sycotic"
but out of a deep necessity and intimate recognition. He will resist ostentation and have to
be forced to overcome his timidity or embarrassment. %ny outbursts of arrogance will be
drowned in remorse, and the flame of his life, which tends to be small, will waste away in
itself, denying its own importance. If a business man, he will search for an associate to be at
the head+ his own abilities may be greater than another#s but not their e&pression - even
thought through and meticulously decided. (eath for him is disintegration, with his an&iety
suppressing his pro$ections of spirit or fusing them into a single one, before or at the same
time as his cell#s feeble functions become paraly,ed.
%G. /0
1alcarea contains the greatest number of these most characteristic mental and somatic
symptoms as well as the predominant psoric blue color.
%23I.T4 in many diverse forms, upon awakening as also in the evening or night, with
palpitations or tremor, as if wanting to accomplish much yet unable to do anything, as if
being afraid of going insane or - in the very highly psoric types - fearful that others will
observe his apprehension, fearful of suffering some misfortune or on hearing some bad
news, an&iety after nausea, an&iety during sleep, an&iety over trifles, an&iety with fear of
death, an&iety with oppression, an&iety with rectal spasms or with bruising or heavy pain in
the back. 5ack of self-confidence, e&pressed as a feeling of worthlessness, is another
characteristic which makes of 1%51%6.% logically a preferred homoeo-psoric+ there is
inhibition of desire for company, with aggravation when alone and a tendency to
melancholy+ he becomes sad very easily, and especially when alone, with a feeling that
something dreadful is about to happen, mental confusion with difficulty in understanding
and e&pressing himself, a tendency to quietude and passivity, fear of hearing about cruelty.
%G. /7
8eing afraid of something is another symptom which neatly encapsulates the 9psoric back
ground of this remedy - such as fear of death, of becoming e&hausted, of going insane, of
disgrace or misfortune - all these being symptoms presented by the patient as part of his
elaboration of psoric an&iety+ as the pathogenesis indicates, he is inclined to be reflective
and obstinate, but always inhibited to the point of cowardice - all being signs of his condition
of deficiency or insufficiency. His characteristic irritability stops here+ only if his syphilitic
condition is unduly aroused, will it go as far as fury or rancour.
%s we already know, the patient is e&tremely reserved and tends to feel disappointed,
which makes him taciturn, obstinately engaged in depressing thoughts, believing himself a
victim of circumstances, yet always dominated by his own sluggishness and peaceableness+
of course, as we have already said, his pathogenesis contains symptoms characteristic of
syphilis and sycosis, but e&citement and emotions change and depress him greatly. He is
easily e&hausted and drained+ any effort will either drain him or stimulate him to a renewal
of his symptoms+ he can never get enough rest, and that is why he does not easily return to
his activities in the morning+ that is also why, logically, he is very sensitive to cold, easily gets
chilled and fatigued and feels that any effort will cause his organs to drop out. That is also
why he is cowardly about all disagreeable sensations, becomes e&cessively frightened even
by a pinprick in his finger, always feels the need to lie down and rest, etc. etc. :hen one
considers the e&tensive symptomatology of this great remedy and its purplish or rather
bluish color, one cannot deny its suitability to psora.
%G. //
Thus psora is the basic miasm. If illness is the result of a violation of nature and its laws
!which give us great liberty but still establishes limits", then the miasm is the result of
repeated transgressions whose effects logically e&tend into the very depth of the organism,
both somatic and mental, and are thus manifested in both the somatic and the mental
realms. 'an#s position of freedom in the universe permits him to transgress+ transgression
brings on imbalance, and repeated imbalance constitutes the initial illness. :hen the
consequences of this imbalance invade the whole being and these become permanent, the
miasm arises. The imbalance alters something which is indispensable to e&istence --rhythm,
both inside us and in respect of the individual#s multiple relations with his surroundings.
sora is an alteration of rhythm in the sense of deficiency+ the individual tends not to be, not
to do not to produce - stagnation, immobility.
%ll the miasms, as causes of dysrhythm, tend to non-e&istence, i.e. , to death. In sora this
occurs through immobility, stasis, and therefore the psoric individual, together will all his
organs and cells, reveals insufficiency. The mind of the psoric is not e&actly deformed but is
tied down or, as we have said, inhibited+ that is why timidity, reticence, and weakness
predominate, that is why the psoric readily seeks protection, consideration, affection, i.e. ,
the feeling of pity which %ristotle notes as one of the two bases of human relationships !the
other being terror". The psoric demands pity and obtains it, as if it were something made
e&pressly for him. His predominant passion will be introspection, platonic love. That
possessive an&iety which is rooted in his own being will compel him to be a profound
contemplative observer. :hen his ego, his essential or indestructible individuality
overcomes his miasmatic condition with all its burdens, he can rise to unsuspected heights,
finding happiness in that of others - as is quite logical considering his idiosyncrasy and his
personal capacities. The death of the psoric will be part of his disposition to disintegration or
dissolution, but even in his an&iety he has a logical hope and vision of eternal life as well as
an unending desire for absolute protection - either a belief in God or confidence in
something immense as a substitute for it.