Muriaticum acidum

In this essay Liz Lalor looks at the character of Hamlet in the play, The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, written by William Shakespeare. Hamlet is perceived as a man tormented by his own indecisive inertia, which eventually drives him into insanity and depression. Liz repertorised Hamlet as mirroring the psychological inertia between the destructive elements of acidum and muriaticum within the remedy picture of Muriaticum acidum.

Hamlet: "To be or not to be"......Muriaticum acidum

The play opens with the ghost of Hamlet's father telling Hamlet he was poisoned by Hamlet's Uncle, Claudius, who has since married Hamlet's mother, and entrenched himself on the throne of Denmark. Hamlet is confronted by the ghost of his father. The ghost commands Hamlet to avenge his murder, but to not blame or hurt his mother Gertrude; who has subsequently married Claudius. Instead of instinctually reacting, Hamlet is overwrought by the responsibility of his father's request for revenge. Previous to hearing the news of his father's murder; Hamlet had also returned home distraught over his mother's hasty and seemingly adulterous remarriage to his uncle, Claudius. If Hamlet had been an innate constitutional remedy picture motivated by revenge he would have acted immediately and instinctively to avenge the crime committed against him and his family. Instead, Hamlet procrastinates, and is torn between doubting his sanity, and the vision of his father's ghost; his rage over his mother's disloyalty; and his depressive inability to act and avenge his father's murder.

Hamlet is clearly not a play about proactive decision making. It is instead a long drawn out dialogue that concentrates on the psychological debate within the tortured mind of a person under extreme emotional stress who is forced by his own inertia to consider his own madness. As homeopaths we are always looking for the ‘never well since' symptom of a case that distinguishes the case as a particular constitutional remedy. As homeopaths we need to know why the person reacted to a particular stress in their life the way they did. It is the answer to this question which will always indicate the constitutional remedy.

The question I am asking in this essay is - What is it within Hamlet that forces him into his own inertia and insanity that also distinguishes and mirrors the remedy picture of Muriaticum acidum? And, why it is, that Hamlet is rendered inactive from what would have be considered to be an instinctual human emotion of revenge.

Rubrics of Muriaticum acidum - Synthesis.

• Delirium: muttering:
• Delirium: raging:
• Delirium: fever, during:
• Delusion: about to die; he was:
• Delusion: frightful:
• Delusion: images, phantoms; sees: past to present: [only remedy - mur-ac.]
• Absorbed:
• Ailments from; Anger; indignation; with:
• Anguish: evening:
• Anxiety: midnight: before:
• Anxiety: future, about:
• Brooding:
• Carefulness:
• Conscientious about trifles:
• Cowardice:
• Discouraged:
• Fancies: exaltation of:
• Fear: evil; fear of:
• Frightened easily:
• Grief: silent:
• Imbecility:
• Loquacity:
• Meditating:
• Moaning: load:
• Morose:
• Muttering:
• Obstinate, headstrong:
• Prostration of mind:
• Reflecting:
• Reserved:
• Sensitive:
• Sentimental:
• Serious, earnest:
• Stupefaction:
• Stupor:
• Succeeds, never:
• Taciturn:
• Talking: himself to:
• Thoughts: persistent:
• Timidity:
• Weary of life:
• Dreams: Death, relatives; of: mother; of his: [mur-ac. - Is one of only two remedies listed.]

 "To be or not to be"........Muriaticum acidum

Allen, 7 - Deep reflection and quiet absorption in himself as if something disagreeable impended, but with no desire to work.

Clarke, 1 - Taciturnity and reserve, anxiety, apprehension and peevishness.

Clarke, 2 - Indecision and inquietude.

Clarke, 3 - Ideas respecting recent events crowd upon the mind during labour.

Clarke, 4 - Disposition to be angry and give way to passion."

Hahnemann, 1 - Sad, taciturn and discontented with his fate.

Hahnemann, 3 - Sad mood.

Hahnemann, 7 - Laconic, reserved, morose.

Hahnemann, 12 - Pusillanimous, despondent and vexed about everything.

Hahnemann, 16 - Readily excited.

Situation of the Acids - The acids have an affinity for weakness, collapse, [Succeeds, never,] and prostration, [discontented with his fate.] Hamlet is consumed with anger and internal grief but he is unable to act, [Pusillanimous.] Sankaran states: "The main theme of an acid is struggle followed by collapse: exertion and exhaustion. The theme of struggle and collapse is clearly expressed in certain symptoms common to all the acids: hurry, industry, the feeling that their efforts are unsuccessful, fear of failure, and also fatigue, indolence and indifference." Hamlet pontificates [Brooding,] his fate for five acts until he is able to find the courage to act. Ironically, even then it is not until he accidentally slays Polonius that he is forced to flee to England to seek help for the kingdom of Denmark. In the meantime he is "afflicted" with internal debate, [Muttering, Thoughts: persistent, Talking: himself to, Loquacity, Anxiety: future, about, Delirium: raging,] to the point he doubts his own "madness," and the vision of his father's ghost, [Delusion: images, phantoms; sees: past to present.]

Situation of Muriaticum - Muriaticum has an affinity for the psychodynamic preoccupation with the incestuous love of the mother. Hamlet is in a [Morose, Stupor,] unable to even respond vengefully to the ghost of his father. He is beside himself with suicidal grief which focuses more on the adulterous loss of his mother to Claudius, than the murder of his father. It is not until Hamlet confronts his mother with her adultery that Hamlet is able to act. Hamlet up until this point is consumed in [Loquacity, Muttering,] as he is frozen, [Stupefaction,] in his own procrastination [Prostration of mind,] and inertia. Consumed with grief and rage over the loss of his mother to Claudius he accidentally stabs Polonius mistaking him for Claudius. Even though in Act I, Scene II, Hamlet declares "Frailty, thy name is woman!" he still debates [Carefulness,] the ethical nature of the vendetta for several more acts of the play. Before Hamlet is confronted with the ghost of his father at the start of the play; he curses his mother; "She married. O, most wicked speed, to post with such dexterity to incestuous sheets!" Sankaran defines the theme of muriaticum as the "theme of betrayal of trust and faith." The Muriaticum element has an affinity for the psychodynamic premonition of the loss of the mother. Within Muriaticum the obsessive psychodynamic [Grief: silent,] of the loss of the mother is so all consuming, the person is thrown into a [Morose, Prostration of mind.]

Muriaticum acidum[1] - Frans Vermeulen in Prisma quotes Dam & Lassauw, Muriatic acid; HL 1/94 "The small misfortunes he has to brood about get more and more [Brooding; Thoughts persistent / intrude and crowd around each other] and it gets chaotic in his mind. With every call from his surroundings he reacts irritated, it is already too much [Irritability; Morose]. He doesn't blame his surroundings, he knows it is his fate and he has to make the best of it even if it is beyond his capacity. He will exhaust himself, drive himself and in the end get exhausted."

Hamlet is so overwrought, at the end of Act I Scene V with the prospect of action, he curses "O cursed spite, that ever I was born to set it right!" Muriaticum acidum as a constitutional picture would conceivably spend the time that Hamlet takes to contemplate [Reflecting, Ideas respecting recent events crowd upon the mind during labour,] so thoroughly that his course of action would be conceived to be "beyond his capacity." Subsequently, he would not be able to instinctively react with rage and murderous revenge for such a heinous crime committed against his own father. Hamlet rather than trust his vision of his father's ghost, sinks into [Indecision and inquietude.] Motivated by his own doubt and "madness;" Hamlet uses a group of visiting actors to re-enact his father's murder. Muriaticum acidum is a remedy picture trapped between the corrosiveness, [Frightened easily,] and destructiveness, [Delirium: raging, Inquietude,] of an acid and the moral self [Absorbed, Anguish, Talking,] examination of the excited muriaticum mind. Sankaran states that the theme of acid is a "constant struggle, the patient is so exhausted that a small setback like the proverbial straw that broke the camel's back, leads to a state of collapse." . Hamlet [Discontented with his fate,] [Pusillanimous,] and corrosive in his own [Indecision and inquietude,] sinks into a depressive neuroses [Delirium: muttering, Delusion: frightful,] that doubts his own sanity.

Hamlet doubting his own sanity and "the spirit that I have seen may be the devil;" by Act III Scene I laments "To be, or not to be: that is the question: whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, or to take arms against a sea of troubles, and by opposing end them. To die: to sleep." Hamlet eventually does kill the King; but only by default. The Queen accidentally drinks from the poisoned cup meant for Hamlet; and it is only as the Queen is dying and only when he himself has been fatally stabbed by the poisoned arrow in his duel with Laertes, the son of Polonius, who he had previously accidentally killed; that Hamlet stabs the King. Hamlet in the final duel with Laertes, who is seeking redemption for Polonius's death, admits his "madness" in his plea for pardon; "his madness is poor Hamlet's enemy." Laertes in comparison to Hamlet who avenges his sister Ophelia, and his father death, by slaying Hamlet comes across as acting impulsively in comparison to the inertia of Hamlet.

It is firstly the "collapse" and "indolence" of the acid and secondly the muriaticum "theme of betrayal" within Hamlet's emotional make-up of Muriaticum acidum that forces him to spend five acts of a play debating with himself over the correct moral and ethical considerations of one course of action over another to the determent of his own sanity and survival. Had Hamlet not been so focused and consumed with his muriaticum perceived "theme of betrayal of trust and faith," directed at his adulterous mother Queen Gertrude, he would have been able to act upon the call for vengeance by the ghost of his father. In this essay I have been discussing the Muriaticum "theme of betrayal of trust and faith," in relation to providing understanding to the incestuous rage and all consuming [Stupefaction,] loss, Hamlet had projected towards his mother. For my patients with the element of Muriaticum the theme of the mother will be transferred to the symbolic provider in their life. The [Grief: silent,] and the premonition of the death of the mother or provider in their lives are the ‘never well symptoms' which can immobilize Muriaticum in the "theme of betrayal of trust and faith." As homeopaths we are similar to psychotherapists in the sense that we are concerned with identifying the psychodynamic trauma; ‘the never well since symptom,' however, the difference is that the frame work of homeopathy also provides us with an understanding of the way forward for our patient. Vithoulkas identifies the difference when he states: "Throughout history, symptoms or groups of symptoms have been viewed as problems which must be eradicated immediately, and medical thought has focused all its attention on agents which can get rid of particular symptoms or syndromes. If a person has a runny nose, give a decongestant." In homeopathy he states; "The dynamic plane is the plane of the essence of life, the plane on which disease originates, as well as the plane of origin of the defense mechanism." As homeopaths we identify the movement from the unhealthy aspects of a constitutional picture to the healthy aspects of the constitutional picture. The preempting circumstances that identify Hamlet as Muriaticum acidum already exist within his nature. In Act III Scene IV when Hamlet confronts his mother he is once again visited by the ghost of his father who pleads with Hamlet to "speak to her." It is not until Hamlet has to plead with his mother Gertrude, the Queen to repent and "confess yourself to heaven," do we see Hamlet prepared to act and come out of his [paretic state.] It is not until Muriaticum acidum confronts their own "theme of betrayal of trust and faith," to do with the mother or provider in their lives do they then act to overcome the acid "theme of struggle and collapse" and "the feeling that their efforts are unsuccessful." Vithoulkas rightly identifies; "To affect the dynamic plane, we must find a substance similar enough to the resultant frequency of the dynamic plane to produce resonance." That cure is of course what distinguishes homeopathy: Similia Similibus Curentur, from all other therapies.

References

Allen, Timothy Field, M.D. LL.D. Handbook of Materia Medica. New Delhi, B. Jain Publishers, 1994.

Boericke, William, M. D. Pocket Manuel of Homoeopathic Materia Medica. New Delhi, Motilal Banarsidass Publishers. 1996.

Clarke, John Henry, M.D. A Dictionary of Practical Materia Medica. New Delhi, B. Jain Publishers, 1994.P. 508.

Hahnemann, Dr. Samuel, The Chronic Diseases. New Delhi, B. Jain Publishers, 1995.

Kent, J. T. Lectures on Materia Medica. New Delhi, B. Jain Publishers, 1994.P. 752.

Kent, J. T. Repertory of the Homoeopathic Materia Medica and a Word Index. New Delhi, B. Jain Publishers, 1994.

Morrison, Roger, M.D. Desktop Guide. Nevada City, CA, Hahnemann Clinic Publishing. 1993.

Sankaran, Rajan, The Soul of Remedies. Santa Cruz, Bombay, Homoeopathic Medical Publishers, 1997.P.127.P.159.P.164.

Schroyens, Frederik, M.D. Synthesis, London, Homeopathic Book Publishers, 1997.

Shakespeare, William. Shakespeare The Complete Works, Volume III, England, Heron Books , 1995.Pp.482-574.

Vermeulen, Frans. Synoptic Materia Medica. The Netherlands, Merlijn Publishers, 1992.

Vermeulen, Frans. Prisma. The Netherlands, Emryss bv Publishers, 2002.Pp. 939-940.

Vithoulkas, George. The Science of Homeopathy. New Delhi, B. Jain Publishers, 1997.

Pp. 87, 91, 92.  

[1] Kent in his Lectures on Materia Medica compares the remedies of extreme prostration; "With Arsenicum there has been the anxious restlessness; with Phos. acid there has been the mental prostration, and then the muscular weakness; with Muriatic acid the muscular weakness comes first, and there has been history of restlessness and the mind has been stronger than could be expected." Clarke, describes the corrosive nature of Hydrochloric acid that is mirrored in the mental and emotional inertia of Hamlet. "The distinctive features of Mur.ac are: Muscular prostration from blood-poisoning going on to paralysis, finally of brain or heart. Burning is a great feature in its symptomatology, as its escharotic powers might suggest - ulcers (especially their margins), eruptions, piles, varices, stomach, and abdomen. It sours the excretions and makes them acrid. Offensive secretions, offensive breath and body-smell; and it is indicated in fevers of all kinds, exanthematous, typhoid, puerperal as well diphtheria, when these symptoms with the mental and paretic state are present. The mucous membranes are dry, bleeding, cracked, and ulcerated."

Liz Lalor is the author of A Homeopathic Guide to Partnership and Compatibility (published by North Atlantic Books) which is an innovative analysis of constitutional types using examples in over 50 different romantic films to help explain relationship compatibility and Materia medica. A review of her book is in the spring edition 2005 of the British Homeopathic Association magazine, Health and Homeopathy, and the autumn edition of Homeopathy in Practice UK. Liz Lalor has published extracts of her book in Links, Homeopathy in Practice, UK; Homeopathy International, UK; the American Journal of Homeopathic Medicine and Similia, Australia. Aside from working as a homoeopath Liz also uses constitutional homoeopathy within a conventional counselling practice to help her patients understand more about themselves as a particular ‘homoeopathic constitutional type.' In this case Liz is able to draw upon her experience of counselling the more ‘unusual' constitutional remedy pictures. Liz has previously explored the remedy picture of Agaricus and Alice in Alice's Adventure in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll; published in Homeopathy in Practice UK. Links magazine have accepted for publication later in 2005, Liz's essay on the characters Frodo and Gollum, and the remedy pictures of Anacardium and Mancinella, in Tolkien's tale of The Lord of the Rings. Homeopathy in Practice UK have accepted for publication later in 2005 Liz's essay on the character of Hamlet as the remedy picture of Muriaticum acidum. Links, spring edition 2005, also published an article on Liz's updated Fertility Program; which is also an innovative program currently used by homeopaths world-wide. Liz practices homoeopathy in Melbourne, Australia.

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