Tuberculinum, Part 2

More Than a Homeopathic Remedy Profile: History, Miasm, Nosode

If you landed here before reading Tuberculinum, Part 1, I recommend going back to read it before continuing on with Part 2.

The Miasm: Beyond Trapped

Tuberculinum, as its name suggests, typifies the Tubercular miasm.¹ This miasm, or defense mechanism, reflects the interaction of both inward (syphilitic) and outward (psoric) forces in the individual. When inward and outward forces meet in a body, we don’t see a cancellation or combination of those forces; rather, according to Grant Bentley,² we see a catalytic cycle of action and reaction. The continual effort that inward and outward energies must exert to counter, or balance, one another leads to the reactivity and sensitivity in the Tubercular miasm and its namesake remedy.

Reactivity

Both miasm and remedy are characterized by sudden or intense physical, mental, or emotional reactions. Tuberculinum will even search for stimulation to cause a reaction or be the stimulation that causes others to react in an attempt to restore balance in their system. The action-reaction pattern can be recognized in other ways, too: in Tuberculinum’s obsession for change, activity, and excitement (to counter dissatisfaction and boredom); in its impulse to travel or escape (to counter suffocation and oppression), and in its violence or destructiveness (to counter excess or insufficient sensory input and oppression). The remedy’s tendency towards frequent colds and allergic symptoms (an over-reactivity to environmental triggers) reveal the pattern as well.

Photo by Jefferson Sees on Unsplash

Sensitivity

The fight or flight response is well-developed in this miasm; a highly attuned nervous system is a signature of its defense strategy. When vitality is flourishing this sensitivity is a strength: Bentley characterizes Tubercular individuals as the hunters of the seven miasm groups, in part, for these acute senses and heightened perceptual abilities. With such a reactive defense mechanism, though, the Tubercular nervous system needs a precise amount of sensory input; out of balance, the senses can be readily over or underwhelmed. This hyper or hypo stimulation lends to the miasm’s trapped sensation and the consequent patterns of fight (violence) and flight (escape).

It’s also part of what makes some Tubercular folks “adrenalin junkies” or labels them as “behavior problems” in school (they need MORE stimulation), and conversely, it’s what makes others cut tags out of clothes or refuse hair brushing (their overwhelmed by TOO MUCH stimulation). When the Vital Force is chronically weakened, the skillful, intelligent hunter also becomes chronically restless, searching, hyper-vigilant, sleepless, fearful (especially of animals, whose behavior is unpredictable to the weakened hunter), weak from the slightest exertion, endlessly hungry from the energy expenditure, and emaciated. Eventually Tuberculinum’s progressively dimming light burns out. Consumption is complete.