I will now present a number of interesting cases. Through them you will have the opportunity to understand the methodology of cognitive homeopathy. You will also be able to understand its differences with the former homeopathic methodology and glimpse into possible future prospects.

Case 1

This is the first case where I employed synthetic thinking and I based the prescription on the patient’s notions rather than the homeopathic materia medica I was familiar with.

I was treating a married woman with two children who suffered from depression. She described herself as withdrawn, always cautious with others and reluctant to talk about her problems. She mentioned frequent sighing and grief. When I asked her if there were any incidents that had affected her, she burst out crying and revealed to me the profoundly traumatic experience of being raped by her father at the age of fourteen.

Since that time, she was very frightened and she was constantly trying to avoid him. During puberty, even though she had opportunities to form relationships, she refrained because she was scared. She had an older brother who was very strict and she was very frightened of him. She also had an older sister who she suspected was also raped by her father.

When she was in university, she met a friend of her brother’s whom she really liked but never had a relationship with because she was afraid that her brother might find out. Later, she met her husband with whom she had a long platonic relationship before having sex because she was afraid of it.

Even though her husband treated her well, she never told him about her traumatic experience. In time, the relationship with her husband started to deteriorate. She was afraid of him even though he was not at all violent.

She had a frequently recurring dream that was quite distinctive. She often dreamt of being in the toilet with the door half open. Outside the door there were men watching her. She was feeling distressed. She also dreamt of male figures approaching her or close to her and she felt frightened. In other cases she saw men chasing her. Sometimes she saw her father as the male figure.

I was treating this woman for four years. I had prescribed several remedies such as Staphisagria, Natrium Muriaticum, Ignatia, Lac Caninum, Ambra Grisea, Cyclamen etc. without any noticeable improvement.

During that time she was somewhat comforted but she never had any significant improvement. In spring 1994 I thought of giving her Natrium Bromatum. My choice was based on the abuse element and its association with bromium. The improvement she displayed was remarkable. Subsequently, this remedy was prescribed again on several occasions with no need for another remedy for her psychosynthesis.

At this point and before I proceed, I would like to discuss certain aspects of Natrium bromatum. The type of individual associated to this remedy is particularly fearful of being abused in a love relationship. The Natrium Bromatum individual shows intense fear of the opposite sex and is afraid of forming a love relationship. Any advances of the other person are perceived as rape.

This is an important remedy for cases of women that have been raped. After a rape a woman fears the opposite sex. She recoils at the touch of any male. The sexual act brings back the memory of the rape.

However, Natrium Bromatum is not only prescribed to women that have been raped. In many cases, young girls are afraid of their first relationship. This may occur if they grew up in an environment with frequent arguments between the mother and father where the mother often played the role of the victim. These girls tend to form platonic relationships and do not allow their lover to approach them sexually in order to make love. In other cases, they may experience acute pain during intercourse. Natrium Bromatum will prove an excellent remedy for such cases. 

In other cases, the choice of men (or women respectively) may be such that it will not trigger the fear of rape in the relationship. For example, the case of a girl whose relationships so far have always been with homosexual men will point to Natrium Bromatum. The male frightens a Natrium Bromatum woman. As a consequence, she chooses passive, gentle or homosexual men. On the other hand, she gets easily bored in such a relationship. She desires unattainable men of whom she is frightened as soon as she meets them.

Natrium Bromatum can also prove very useful in cases of male homosexuality that is due to fear of the opposite sex. Fear of women leads men to seek homosexual relations. (Obviously, the same applies to women).

At this point, I will go back to the description of the case in question. Before I prescribed Natrium Bromatum I looked for relevant information in the homeopathic materia medica but I was unable to locate any studies providing such information. In this case the prescription was not based on traditional experimental homeopathic provings but on synthetic thinking. The outcome was so remarkable that it prompted me to start processing the information in the patient histories in a synthetic manner. A new methodology began to form in my mind. I was no longer intent in finding a remedy from the existing materia medica to prescribe to the patient. I was merely recording the patient’s main insecurities and I was trying to find the concepts they represented.

During this process, I found that many of the patients needed remedies that did not exist. It was then that I discussed my observations with the pharmacist Ioannis Efstathiou, who was willing to prepare them so that we could test them. The results of the tests of these remedies were truly extraordinary. Subsequently, during the last few years, hundreds of new remedies were prepared by Ioannis and Christiana Efstathiou and they formed the basis for the application of this new methodology.

Case 2

During the same period, another patient was visiting me for headaches. His headaches had improved with Natrium Muriaticum. However, there were two features which had not improved. The first was that he felt the need to smoke cannabis to reduce his stress. The second was that he preferred having relationships with men only. I was not satisfied with the progress of his treatment because I wanted to see changes in those features as well.

Next, I asked him why he did not like having relationships with women. He told me that whenever a woman makes sexual advances to him he feels a tightening in the stomach. There was fear of women inside him. When I asked him to describe his mother to me he said she was intensely punishing, beat him up all the time and he was afraid of her.

At that time I was just starting to deeply comprehend the bromine compounds. The previous case of Natrium Bromatum was quite recent and I was convinced that this was the remedy this patient needed as well and so I prescribed it to him. He visited me a few months later to tell me that he had a permanent relationship with a woman and he had stopped using cannabis because he did not feel so stressed any more. I saw him again a year later in the eve of his wedding. He pointed out to me how much this remedy had changed his life and that he wanted to repeat it. 

Many believe that the study of new remedies is unnecessary. But what would have happened in this case if Natrium Bromatum was not prescribed? Was there a chance that another Natrium salt would have produced such extraordinary results? What was the reason why Natrium Muriaticum did not work so profoundly? It is now clear based on our experience that administering a partially similar remedy only helps partially but cannot provide profound cure.

Case 3

During my first visit to Moscow, the seminar organiser had scheduled some patients for me to examine in order to demonstrate in practice the methodology I was teaching.

A doctor who attended the seminar brought her three year old son to me who had problems with the respiratory system. He often fell ill with respiratory infections and had difficulty breathing. Some homeopathic remedies had already been given to him with no effect.

It was extremely difficult for me to take the history from a little child whose language I did not speak. However, during the examination I was lucky because I noticed that the boy had a tendency to constantly strike his mother. I asked her if this happens often and she said that it did. She also explained to me that he mainly does that to her. I asked her if she was afraid of abuse and she said that she was. She explained that she was intensely afraid of abuse during her high school years. It was then that her parents sent her to a boarding school to study. Whilst at the boarding school she was feeling lonely; she felt as if she had no family and that older children might abuse her. Based on this information I prescribed Magnesia Bromata both for the mother and the son. This remedy helped both of them significantly.

The choice of remedy was based on the fact that children often demonstrate the same clinical profiles as the parents. It is also accepted that during pregnancy some of the mother’s emotions are passed to the foetus. For this reason, when examining a child, we often ask about the mother’s emotional state during pregnancy. There are cases where we have noticed that the psychological state of the mother has left an imprint in the psychological state of the child. In this particular case, the boy’s tendency to abuse his mother was associated to the mother’s fear of abuse.

This is one of the cases where classical homeopathy might seem ineffective. In this case however, prescribing the correct remedy helped the patient. Magnesia Bromata is one of the remedies that would hardly ever be prescribed by a classical homeopath. For a cognitive homeopath though, it is a straightforward choice.

Case 4

This is the case of a patient who was afraid she would harm her child. She had an impulse to throw the child in the fireplace or out of the window. She felt terribly guilty about her feelings. Even though she was under homeopathic treatment for a year she observed no improvement.

She associated these thoughts with the difficulties in her relationship with her husband. She described him as rigid, guarded, attached to his mother and without any initiative. He was very jealous of her and there was always friction between them.

She is the fourth daughter of a couple who wanted a boy. When she was born she was undesirable to her parents. She experienced intense rejection. She said she was her parents’ greatest disappointment and that they never gave her the attention they gave to their other daughters. They wanted to swap her with a male cousin. She lived in a boarding school from the age of thirteen until graduation. The living conditions there were harsh and especially strict. After the holidays, she always felt like an orphan. She also felt that she never had a mother.

She generally said that she felt great disappointment.

The remedy that helped her escape the sense of orphan hood was Magnesia Muriatica. All the physical complaints she had were also alleviated. The particular patient’s notion of orphan hood was acquired when she was a foetus. This notion was later reinforced by the various experiences in her life.

When a mother does not want the pregnancy and attempts to trigger a miscarriage, it is enough to create the notion of orphan hood to the foetus, should her attempts fail. There have been cases with orphan insecurities developed solely by this fact and without any further incidents after birth.

Case 5

A twelve year old child was brought to me suffering from depression over the last few months. The child was very reserved and did not answer any of my questions. The only answer he gave me when I asked him how he felt was: “I feel great disappointment. It would be a great relief for me if I took poison.”

For the rest of the session he stared at the floor and despite my efforts to extract a few words out of him he did not utter a word. He only interrupted my conversation with his mother to tell her that he wanted to go.

His mother described him as a particularly introverted person who does not talk about his problems and gets easily disappointed. He has a very bad relationship with his father. He is diligent at school but he has difficulty making friends with other children. When he was little he was dyslexic and was treated for that. The mother stresses that this had greatly affected him psychologically. 

Based on the above I thought that this child had the following significant features:

1.   He was easily disappointed.

2.   He had a very bad relationship with his father.

3.   He had a sense of inferiority and dissimilarity due to his dyslexia. 

It is understandable that the sense of inferiority and dissimilarity is aggravated during puberty. Accordingly in this case, depression appeared at the onset of puberty.

It was obvious to me that he needed a homeopathic remedy containing Chlorine, Calcium and Borium. I asked Christiana Efstathiou to prepare it for me. The remedy was named Borium Muriaticum Calcareatum and was given to the child.

The child’s improvement after taking this remedy was remarkable. During the first days of the treatment the depression subsided, his behaviour improved, he became more talkative and sociable. The relationship with his father also improved.

This is yet another case that would have been difficult to treat, if at all, employing the traditional approach. It is one of the many cases that demonstrate the opening of new horizons by the application of cognitive homeopathy. More than two hundred and fifty new remedies have been prepared so far based on the methodology described in this case. Initially, the remedy was prepared for a specific patient for whom it was found to be necessary. Following the first case, many of these remedies have been prescribed to several subsequent patients as well.

Case 6

A 26 year old man, private sector employee, had symptoms of psoriasis for the last two years. He had been treated by a dermatologist, as well as a homeopath with no effect. The rash had spread all over his body. Due to this problem he had stopped working for the last two months.

He said that he was especially stressed lately. His schedule was heavy. He felt very strained at work and was unable to relax. He is very hard working. He likes to be the best. At work, he tries very hard to earn appreciation. Friendship is very important to him. He yearns for his friends’ appreciation and does everything to earn it.

The patient was given Aurum Sulfuratum Kalinatum in various potentisations. Within a month the rash had significantly subsided. Within two months he was completely cured. The problem has not reappeared since.

This case also shows a remarkable cure following the prescription of a new remedy. Aurum Sulfuratum Kalinatum is one of the new remedies devised according to the methodology of Cognitive Homeopathy. It is a remedy that we have used several times. The main feature of this remedy, which is very common in humans, is people’s need to create in order to earn the appreciation of their friends or family. For this reason we believe that in the next few years it will become one of the most commonly used remedies of the homeopathic materia medica.