The Thought Behind the Action - Miasms: Psora, Syphilis,

Sycosis
homeopathycenter.org /homeopathy-today/thought-behind-action-miasms-psora-syphilis-sycosis

This article is the third in a four-part series explaining the chronic miasms
and how homeopaths use knowledge of them in practice.

In the last two columns, I introduced the concept of miasms by describing the connotations of the word and
discussing some of the general principles of miasmatic theory. In moving on to particular descriptions of the various
miasms, I would like to remind the reader that miasms are an important topic for professionals in homeopathy to
understand but that treating miasmatically is beyond the scope of home prescribing. Prescribing at the miasmatic
level requires a great deal of training and experience in order to identify the miasmatic picture and to assess the
effects of the remedy. Nevertheless, an understanding of the concept of miasms is invaluable to anyone studying
homeopathy, because it helps to explain the homeopathic concept of health and disease and to organize our
knowledge of the remedies themselves. For the student of homeopathy, it is best to consider this information
theoretical and philosophical rather than to look immediately for its practical application. The fourth column in this
series will describe how homeopaths use knowledge of the miasms in clinical practice.

The story of miasms begins with Samuel Hahnemann himself. As his experience of homeopathy brought him to
understand its usefulness not only in acute but also in chronic disease, Hahnemann found that chronic diseases
arise from a deep inner susceptibility that he called miasm. External causes of disease, he observed, can bear fruit
only in the fertile ground of a miasmatic foundation, which passes by various means from person to person and
creates the predisposition to particular kinds of disease states. Hahnemann identified three miasms, each with its
own characteristics and disease propensities.

Psora

Hahnemann described psora as historically the first and pathologically the fundamental miasm. Psora creates the
susceptibility to all other miasms and diseases. Hahnemann wrote in his great work on the miasms, The Chronic
Diseases, that psora is contagious by the slightest touch, which explains why this miasm is present in every human
being; some argue, in fact, that it is present in every living thing. It arises from the skin eruption that was called "itch"
in Hahnemann's time and that is now known as scabies, and it reflects this origin by counting among its symptoms
the kind of rash that itches more from being scratched. Like all miasms, psora contains a host of different symptoms
and sensations but can be understood as a whole in terms of the themes and patterns that unite these.

The central idea of the psoric miasm has been described as weakness, or lack. Psora gives us the feeling that we
are small, weak, unable to succeed in the face of a challenge, overwhelmed by the demands that life makes on us. It
is the feeling of lacklack of strength, stamina, power, or whatever else it takes to survive, especially in comparison
with the threats and demands around us, which in turn look all the more threatening because of our psora. Psora is
the influence that makes us feel we can never have enough money, comfort, belongings, or love. Psora makes us
fear robbers who might steal what we own, and it makes us conscientious in our work so that we can feel more
secure. It makes children wary of the dark, of strangers, and of new situations. It makes us dress and behave for
social acceptance. It provides us with stage fright and test anxiety, and it makes us buy insurance, save for
retirement, and rent safe-deposit boxes at the bank.

It is clear, of course, that these activities are not all pathological. Psora can be very healthy for us, motivating us to
prepare for the future and take reasonable precautions in life. This is in the nature of all miasms: they have a
positive, adaptive effect when they are in a healthy state, creating problems only when they move into an unhealthy
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one.

Both the healthy and the unhealthy state of psora share the same feeling of internal weakness; the difference
between them is the degree to which this weakness takes over the person's life. In a healthy state, psora allows us
to function smoothly in the world. The sensation of internal weakness is appropriate to our situation and motivates
us to keep our lives under control, to make sure that our needs are fulfilled and that we respond to the demands of
our environment. In an unhealthy state, the weakness of psora takes over and we are no longer able to compensate
for it; we are too weak to provide ourselves with the elements of security that are necessary for survival, or we
become so consumed with the sensation of our own weakness that we cannot function effectively in our lives.

For example, in an individual for whom psoric anxiety centers on a fear of poverty, a healthy state could be
expressed in obtaining a good education, working hard at a well-paying job, and saving for the future. It could be
healthy for such a person to have a habit of keeping cash in their wallet and in the cookie jar, to check their
investments weekly, and to ask their children every morning if they have enough lunch money. These would be
healthy activities because they provide a sense of security for someone who is by nature insecure about finances. If
the psoric state became unhealthy for this person, however, they would experience keenly their sense of lack in this
area rather than feeling secure that they had effectively compensated for the lack. They might feel mounting anxiety
about money; they might become irritable when asked about their finances; they might even despair of having
enough money in their old age. They could respond to these feelings by becoming miserly and so preoccupied with
money that it could interfere with their happiness in other areas. Just as in the healthy state, they would be
motivated by their fear of lacking money, but the unhealthy expression of this fear would hinder their performance
and their development as a person.

Each miasm's nature is expressed physically as well as mentally and emotionally. Psoric weakness, evident
historically as the skin's susceptibility to the microorganism that causes scabies, in miasmatic form provides the
susceptibility to disease, deterioration, and infectious illnesses; it is commonly evident, for example, in repeated
colds and flu. Psora can be a source of allergies, in that allergies come from a lack of resistance to environmental
influences. It can hamper the body's ability to metabolize nutrients; osteoporosis, for instance, reflects psora in the
sense that it comes from a weakness in the absorption of calcium and creates physical weakness in its turn. Psora
is expressed in many cases of chronic fatigue syndrome, where there is weakness and lack of energy and where
the person is easily overwhelmed by physical and emotional demands.

Syphilis

Each miasm takes its name and certain aspects of its identity from a particular disease, as psora does from scabies.
In each miasm, however, this is the extent of the disease identification. Everyone has psora, but not everyone has
the skin disease from which it originated; the same principle is true of the syphilitic miasm, which affects many
people but very few of those affected have had the actual disease called syphilis.

While the disease of syphilis was fairly common in Hahnemann's time, today the syphilitic miasm is acquired
primarily by heredity. An ancestor who had syphilis can pass the miasm to his or her descendants, who in turn pass
it on to theirs. Enmeshed with the psora that exists in everyone, the syphilitic miasm creates the predisposition to
illnesses that reflect the deeper nature of syphilis without necessarily representing its common presentation.

Syphilis is a disease that, after its visible eruption is gone, can exist silently in the body for a lifetime, causing
internal decay that is not evident until it reaches a moment of crisis. This aspect of the disease gives the syphilitic
miasm its central theme, that of hiddenness. The syphilitic miasm creates a sense of harboring something
dangerously wrong inside oneself, something beyond the reach of rational knowledge or description, and even the
sense itself may be so deep as to be inaccessible to the conscious mind. This sense of having something wrong
inside can be expressed directly in self-criticism or guilt, in reserve based on a fear of exposing one's own inner state
to others, or in self-control that arises from the fear of allowing the inner wrongness to gain the upper hand. Its
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indirect expression happens when the sense of the hidden flaw is projected out onto the world around, and then it
becomes suspicion, fear, anger, and even violence; in this case, the feeling is that if I have something so wrong
inside me, then the rest of the world must too.

The syphilitic sense that danger is lurking in hiding can result in fears of being attacked, as when a child is
convinced that sharp-toothed monsters threaten him from his closet. It prompts people to carry weapons and to plan
how they might use them if they were attacked, and it fuels the fear of doing something dangerous on impulse. At its
unhealthiest level, it can give rise to suicidal or homicidal feelings, but more commonly it remains less threatening,
producing fears and sometimes a mental dullness that anesthetizes the intellect. In a state of health, it may inspire
people to selflessness and public service as a way to demonstrate to themselves that their inner state is benign;
healthy people with the syphilitic miasm can be among the most kind and loving one can hope to meet.

Physically, the syphilitic miasm follows the same pattern, with diseases developing to a relatively serious state
before they show themselves. A syphilitic kind of heart disease, for example, might be completely asymptomatic until
a sudden and severe heart attack. Otherwise benign discharges from the body may be tinged with blood when the
syphilitic miasm is active, giving evidence of deterioration within. While psora is worst after overexertion, illnesses in
which the syphilitic miasm is a factor tend to be worst at night, a time when mental control is at its lowest and when
the theme of hiddenness comes to the fore under cover of darkness.

Sycosis

Early in his understanding of miasms, Hahnemann observed the action of sycosis in male patients who had been
allopathically "cured" of gonorrhea but who then developed a characteristic series of other health problems. These
other problems seemed unrelated to the gonorrhea until Hahnemann noted that they typically occurred in men with
a recent history of this disease. This observation led him to understand that, though the disease itself had ceased to
show its characteristic symptoms, the gonorrhea had left its mark in a predisposition to a particular complex of
ailments, a miasm. Moreover, Hahnemann found that there was a corresponding complex of ailments typical of
these patients' wives, who themselves had never had gonorrhea at all and who developed their problems only after
marrying a man who had been "cured" of gonorrhea. From this observation he realized that the miasm had passed
to them independently of the disease itself. Today, like the syphilitic miasm, sycosis is acquired mainly by heredity,
and it is a fairly common accompaniment to humanity's native psora.

The sycotic miasm's main theme is excess. The disease gonorrhea expresses this theme in its urethral discharge
and genital warts, and the miasm amplifies it throughout the mind and body. Sycosis expresses its excess inner
energy in strong, sudden reactions and in the need for excitement and stimulation. It gives us the rush of the roller
coaster addict, fuels the commercial success of bungee jumping and recreational skydiving, and sells little red sports
cars that run best over 100 mph. Sycosis packs all-night dance clubs and creates a market for street drugs that are
taken for excitement; it inspired the current teenage fad known as the "rave." The disease gonorrhea centers on the
reproductive organs, and the sycotic miasm has a strong sexual component that can be expressed in short-lived
anonymous encounters or in any other sexual expression of the need for stimulation and excitement.

In health, like the other miasms, sycosis shows its characteristics in well-adapted ways. There can be strong
emotional attachment to a spouse, anger that is expressed openly and then resolves quickly, and boundless energy
directed toward productive work and altruistic tasks. There can be tremendous imagination, creativity, and
flamboyance that lights up a room. There can be colorful, entertaining speech and inspiration that knows no bounds.

In a less healthy state, the inner energy becomes unmanageable and is directed into less positive tributaries. For
example, a restless child might find it harder to sleep the later it gets, and a sinus infection can produce a nasal
discharge that requires box after box of tissues. Warts, moles, benign tumors, and other excess growths can arise
from the action of sycosis, as in fibrocystic breast disease and endometriosis. Sudden high fevers, ruptured
eardrums, and abdominal inflammations can result from the disordered inner energy's attempt to find a release.
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In all three of these miasms, the central theme runs through the physical, mental, and emotional levels. This
consistency of expression is a measure of the pervasiveness of the miasm: far from being confined to one aspect of
an organism, the miasm exists throughout the person and, rightly perceived, can be seen in every aspect of their
being and their life. Since correct homeopathic treatment can bring miasms to higher levels of health, this healing
too is evident in every area in which the miasm expresses itselfin short, throughout the person's life. Knowledge
of miasms, then, can be the key to the kind of deep and thorough healing that is homeopathy at its best.

About the author:

Ann Jerome Croce, PhD, CCH, is a Research Professor of American Studies at Stetson University, having earned
her BA at Yale and MA/PhD at Brown University. She is a homeopathic assistant to Joya Schoen, MD, in Orlando,
Florida, a board member of the Council for Homeopathic Certification, and a faculty member of The School of
Homeopathy, New York. She has authored numerous articles for homeopathic and other scholarly journals.

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