Passive Case Witnessing Process (PCWP) -
D: Tell me about you?
(Patient starts with her complaints.)
(Area chief complaint) -
P: Menorrhagia is bothering me. Big clots are passing even when urinating. I am afraid of taking challenges because of this. I get totally bed ridden. It doesn't allow me to be mobile. It makes me completely crippled.
(Problem completely cripples her and she cannot take challenges because of this.)
(Patient spontaneously starts speaking about herself in general.)
(Area self) –
I always want to be alert, always want to be in charge, want to be in charge of myself... Don’t want to be bedridden, bogged down by something. I want to be in charge, I want to be awake.
When my husband is drinking, I am more alert than him. Even when he is driving the car, I feel that I have to be awake. (Narrates incident) In plane also I was the first one to know that something is wrong with the plane. Even if I don’t want to be alert, I am always too alert. I never like to loosen-up and let myself go.
(We note that the patient always wants to be ‘in charge, wants to be alert and awake the entire time’.)
I don’t like people controlling your life. It’s very frustrating. I feel completely bogged down. I feel as if somebody is strangulating me (HG Showing with gesture of neck being strangulated, appropriate HG). After a point I just shut that person.
I am a very independent type of a person. I don’t like anybody controlling my life. It gets too much overpowering for me.
‘Like to be in charge of myself, don’t like to lose control, and don’t like anybody controlling my life; disease bogs me down, overpowers and cripples me. Don’t like anyone overpowering me’ – was coming repeatedly in the area of her complaints and in relation with other people. Hence this was the focus of the case.
She talks about herself spontaneously, without any defenses.
Qualified delusions and expressions like, ‘I am feeling strangulated’, ‘disease is crippling me’ etc so potency would be 1M
​Talking, in general, about the chief complaint, herself and feelings with others.
Hand gestures are appropriate to her words.
(Since the focus is clear, we now start with the Active Case Witnessing Process to explore the focus and see where it leads us to.)
Active Case Witnessing Process (ACWP) with focus -
D: So tell me what is the feeling of – ‘not being in charge, not being in control and being overpowered, crippled either by people or your disease’ - what is that feeling?
P: I feel that I am locked in a room & I have to go out, I have to breathe fresh air, take a deep breath. Be on my own, be the way I am.
This I feel even when people say ‘you have to wear this’, I have to put that big tikka.
(Here she qualifies the focus with still more peculiar expressions and with an example [of Indian tradition] which confirms that the focus is right and we are on the right track. We now start with the Active – Active Case Witnessing Process towards her centre.)
Active -Active Case Witnessing Process (A-ACWP) -
D: Tell me more about this feeling of ‘being locked in the room’?
P: (Narrates situations) My FIL is little eccentric & too dominating and my MIL is a very calculative, cunning woman & very dominating. 7 years we lived together I used to feel I am locked in a cage with them. FIL is like some mad animal. In a cage, wherever you go, you can’t run out. At the most you can hide here or there but he is going to be everywhere.
(We note that patient is comparing her FIL with a ‘mad animal’; we also note that non human-specific language is coming up – dominating, cunning, cage)
He is huge, talks rubbish abusive language, he is animalistic… I just want to break free from that atmosphere and breathe fresh air. With them around, I feel as if I am caged or locked in a room where there is no window. I don’t want to be crushed and bogged down by people.
(Patient is qualifying further with peculiar expressions about her FIL; she also joined ‘bogged down’ from PCWP)
There are times when I just want to run way, feel free, just feel like running on the beach or some open space and feel in control of myself.
(So patient’s reaction to this caged and bogged feeling is to ‘run away’. She also says that this will make her feel ‘in control’ of herself – she has come back to the focus. Also, since the patient was qualifying the focus while describing her FIL, we tell her to keep describing him more. All that she says about him is actually what she is sensitive to.)
D: More about your FIL…
P: Mean, calculative, lies a lot, overpowering
(Again joined a PQRS expression – ‘overpowering’ from PCWP)
D: And what comes in your mind about running on the beach?
P: Just running on the beach with lot of fresh air, may be running in the field, open air.
Being locked in a room; reminds me of a jail with so many prisoners. You don’t have your privacy. It’s oppressing in the jail.
(Patient has given a completely unrelated example spontaneously; hence we know that the patient is sensitive to ‘caged/free’ in the holistic sense and this is not something which is coming up only in the situation with her in-laws. Nevertheless, we check in subconscious areas to be entirely sure.)
D: Tell us something about your interests and hobbies?
P: I like freedom of expression. I like music. There should be freedom of expression in everything. I love my family.
(In her interests and hobbies also – ‘freedom’ is coming up, opposite of being ‘caged and locked’)
D: As a child any traumatic and strong experience?
P: (Narrates another incident) I was separated from my grandmother and had to join my parents. I had to start new bonding with my parents. There was a feeling of separation from family. (Started crying)
I was staying with my grandparents with big garden and when I had to come to my parents in a small room. It was like a wild animal in a cage.
(The patient has beautifully connected her childhood experience.)
(Spontaneously goes to chief complaint area) -
I have a feeling of being in a cage, in a prison even when I am in my periods.
(Connected childhood incidence and chief complaint; we are now very sure that this is her holistic experience and not just related to one area of her life. We are also clear about the Kingdom and hence we now proceed for the confirmation of the source)
Active –Active confirmation of Source -
D: Which animal are you sensitive to?
P: I LIKE LION, MORE SO LIONESS - She is very protective for her cubs. Like I am very protective and very attached to my son.
(We note that the patient is qualifying and identifying with ‘lioness’)
Lioness has boldness, fearlessness; she has a certain loyalty, a bond with the family, with her cubs, with the lion. She is very alert.
(Spontaneously starts talking about herself.) A lot of time I can make out from lip movements what they are talking. When I am talking on phone, I still know what is going behind and around me.
When she goes for hunting, she can sense that the animal is around. When she is following the animal, she has to be alert and has to concentrate. And when I chase my work, I wanted to write for the Bombay times, I had to write at any cost.
When lioness is hunting her prey - she is not distracted, she is at it. More than that, her boldness, I like people who are bold and loyal.
(Patient is completely identifying with the source. We give her uninterrupted space to express more.)
The freedom she has, the open space. The lionesses are not curbed down by culture and the traditional norms. They are true to themselves. I admire the open space they have.
I am able to perform/ give my best when there is little bit freedom.
Jewelry is a restriction for me. Mangalsutra is bandhan for me. With all the jewelry I feel unhappy, out of place, no freedom, again I feel locked. (Hand gestures++, speech and body language becoming more animated. We know that her whole being is now involved in this description.)
IT’S LIKE A WICKED CAT is wearing all these jewelry. Cats like how they show in cartoons. I don’t like cats because they are very dishonest, not loyal. I hate cats, I always compare such women with the cat. Very catty nature…
(We note that the patient is very sensitive to cats and hence the family is also now clear)
That is what I like about wild animals. They don’t have to wear all these things. Don’t have to prove themselves…
(We started with the focus in ACWP and the patient qualified it further. The focus got connected in the A-ACWP; plus the same experience was seen in her situation with in-laws, in her chief complaint and also in her subconscious areas [interests, hobbies and childhood incident]; hence we knew that the case is complete.)
END OF THE CASE
(Hereafter, we noted all the PQRS expressions of the case, the focus and the centre. Through it we got clues about the Kingdom, sub-kingdom, family and reactions and we searched for the remedy accordingly.)
PQRS expressions of the case:
Animal words in the case:
Subkingdom-Mammal words in the case:
Family - Cats
Source words -
Complete identification with the lioness -
Remedy given -
Lac leo IM I dose (prepared from milk of lioness)
1st follow up -
3rd follow up -
4th follow up -
6months follow- up –
Lac leo repeated once when she had lot of stress at her workplace and the same experience came up. Otherwise she is doing much better – physically, mentally and emotionally. Relationship with her in-laws has improved to a great extent, she doesn’t feel ‘curbed and restricted’ by them now. Desire for trekking came up which she now pursues as her hobby.
We began as a mineral. We emerged into plant life
and into the animal state, and then into being human,
and always we have forgotten our former states,
except in early spring when we slightly recall
being green again.
And though we seem to be sleeping,
there is an inner wakefulness
that directs the dream,
and that will eventually startle us back
to the truth of who we are
- Essential Rumi by Coleman Barks
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