ANACARDIUM ORIENTALE

(Anac.)

MENTAL

This remedy is full of strange notions and ideas. The mind appears to be feeble;
almost, if not complete imbecility; seems as if in a dream; everything is strange;
slow to comprehend. Marked irritability; disturbed by everything; cursing. Weak
memory. Forgetful of things in his mind but a moment ago. All his senses seem to
vanish and he gropes around as if in a dream. Change of states; alternate states.
Dullness and sluggishness of the mind prevail. He is in a continuous controversy
with himself. Irresolution marks his character. He cannot settle between doing this
and that, he hesitates and often does nothing. He cannot decide, especially in an
action of good or evil. He hears voices commanding him to do this or that, and seems
to be between a good and an evil will. He is persuaded by his evil will to do acts of
violence and injustice, but is withheld and restrained by a good will. So there is a
controversy between two wills, between two impulses. When this is really analyzed
by one who knows something of the nature of man it will be seen that the man is
disturbed in his external will, but the internal will cannot be affected by medicine.
His external voluntary is continuously excited by external influences, but his real
will, in which is his conscience, restrains that and keeps him from carrying the
impulses into effect. This can only be observed when its action is on a really good
man. He has a controversy when his external will is aroused, but in an evil man there
is no restraint and he will not have this symptom.

Hallucinations; a demon sits on one shoulder and an angel on the other. He is

disposed to malice and has an irresistible desire to curse and swear. Laughs when he
should be serious. So it is carried on until all things in the external will are inverted.
Internal anxiety, i.e., the internal will is in turmoil over this external disturbance.
"Contradiction between will and reason" is an attempt to express what the individual
knew nothing about. "Feels as though he had two wills." That is better. It finally
destroys or paralyzes the external will, and when a man is naturally evil and is under
the paralyzing influence of Anacardium he will do acts of violence. A wicked man
is restrained, not by his conscience, but by fear of the law. Anacardium paralyzes
the external will and places him in a position of imbecility, and he does acts of
violence from his own natural perverted self. It has so acted on a portion of the mind
that it teaches a great deal. I have learned much from Anac, AURUM and
ARGENTUM of the strange action of medicines on the human mind. Psychology
must be figured out by the action of drugs on the human mind. By this means we get
as facts and can lay aside many hypotheses.

Ideas as if nothing were real; all seems to be a dream. Fixed ideas. He thinks he is
double. This comes from a vague consciousness that there is a difference between
the external and internal will, a consciousness that one will is the body and another
is the mind. Dwells on thoughts about salvation. That a stranger is by his side is
another recognition of the two wills. Those strange forms accompany him, one to
his right side and one to his left. This mental state drives him to madness.

Alternation of his moods and understanding. One moment he sees a thing and
another moment he does not understand it. One moment she sees it is her child and
another that it is not. One moment it is a delusion and next moment it is an illusion.
One moment thinks it is so and next moment has enough reason left to know that it
is not so. Delusion is an advanced stage of illusion. In the Repertory we have the
same remedies often in illusion and delusion; it is a matter of grade. When the
intellect is slightly affected it is an illusion, and what he sees he knows is not so. He
sees demons, and at first he knows from his intelligence that a demon is not there,
but later, he wants you to drive him out. It does not matter which, they are similar
symptoms, and it is a matter of degree, and so, in the Repertory, delusions and
illusions are not given separate places.

Anac, HYOS., STRAM. and BELL., are important in bringing out the quality of the
perverted human mind as to the intelligence and affections. Whenever a medicine
makes a man desire to do something it affects his will, and when it affects his
intelligence it is acting on his understanding. Medicines act on both.

Low-spirited, disheartened, fears he is pursued, looks for thieves, expects enemies,

fears everything and everybody. Full of internal anxiety. No peace. He is separated
from the whole world, and he despairs to do that which is required of him. Cowardly
in the extreme. Fears some dreadful thing will happen. Morose, sulky, sullen.
Unsocial; complains of weak memory. Slight causes make him excessively angry.
A strong feature is that all moral feeling is taken out of him. He feels cruel. Can do
bodily injury without feeling. Cruel, malicious, wicked.

Bad effects of mental excitement. Weak-minded. Consequences of fright and

mortification. Suitable in religious mania when the conflict between the external and
internal will is kept up. It is analogous to HYOS.

Many complaints are ameliorated by eating.

PHYSICAL

Sensation here and there of pressure, described as of a plug, all through the body, in
the head, eyes, in the navel and down the spine. Objects appear too far off. Things
have a strange look, sometimes uncanny. Illusions of smell, burning timber, pigeon's
dung. Chronic dry coryza.

The whole body has been well covered by symptoms; but it seems that the mind
represents the principal aspect, and it will seldom be used excepting for such mind
symptoms. Usually when the mental symptoms are strong the physical are also
covered by the remedy.

Full of trembling and paralytic weakness. Tetanus; epilepsy. Sensations as of a hoop

or band around the body, limbs or head; pressing as of a plug.

The eruptions are like RHUS-T in many respects; erysipelatous eruptions dark,
dusky and of malignant types. It is an antidote to RHUS-T. poisoning. Eruptions all
over. Yellow vesicles are common. Intense itching of eruptions. Warts on the palms
like NAT-M. Skin burns much. It seems closely related in its symptoms to all the
RHUS. family.