I’d like to lay out for you the Constitutional Genotypes from the Autism perspective to make it easier for you to see them through the lens this condition. Let’s look at the spectrum of typology from the quiet Silicea at the top of the equation, as the quietest, most insular in comparison to the bottom of the spectrum with Sulphur being the most loud and verbose.
I will do my best, then to fill in the middle parts for you so that you can see how the typical autism child is reflected within Heilkunst. Perhaps that way, you will see how giving that child their Constitutional Remedy would help to round out their Autistic edges while en route to curing the cause of their ills.
Silicea – is well behaved, morally sound, quiet, homebody preferring his own company to being with others. He can suffer OCD patterns to the extreme if faced with new circumstances that he does not feel comfortable with. Siliceas can feel lost in their own little world and parents will say that they’re almost invisible.
“sanda-child-silhouette-cutout-1936” by Fabrice Florin https://flic.kr/p/iF29mc
Lycopodium – are described as ruling the roost. They’re persuasive, sneaky, manipulative and bossy. They’ll generally be obsessed with money. Deep inside, they fear that they’re not smart enough for the task before them and will wangle you with excuses why they can’t step up.
Calcarea Carbonica – love their rituals and systems. They will drive their parents crazy with their stubborn rituals, routines and systematic methodologies. They’re detail-oriented to the extreme, rarely letting things go, and will seemingly create more obstacles, roadblocks and reasons for making things as difficult as possible for themselves and others.
“drenched in starlight.” by Charlotte McKnight https://flic.kr/p/9YNGAd
Phosphorous – have an overactive imagination, creating a life of fancy and mysticism that is entirely ungrounded. They can feel like a floaty kite without a string. They will speak constantly of fairies and mystical pets and seem to have two feet in an entirely made up world where things are much better than reality. They’re beyond talkative and their constant expressions might try the patience of any parent, if they weren’t so delightfully charming!
Pulsatilla – are needy, clingy and constantly hiding behind Mom’s or Dad’s trousers if in the Spectrum. They have a difficult time mustering the confidence to engage with others, preferring to play with their dolls or find sweets to eat. They want others to conform to playing house with them to the exclusion of all other play. They tend to be puffy and swollen.
Sulphur – are the most aggressive, enraged and “radial” of all the Genotypes. They will smear feces on the wall, aggressively hit, kick, bite and suffer screaming tantrums that will cause the most patient parent to lose it. Sulphurs only want their way and are almost impossible to appeal to with reason when they get all wound up.
“012|365” by Steven Worster https://flic.kr/p/bwT92L
My hope is that this is a help to you. Are you able to see more clearly which Genotype might be a best fit for your child? Let us know if you want to clarify anything mentioned here.
Attachment Parenting: is the latest buzz-term amongst natural parenting advocates. At Arcanum Wholistic Clinic, we’re big proponents of attachment parenting which includes wearing baby in a sling by day and, by night, nursing on demand and co-sleeping or bed-sharing. Parents of various native tribes around the world raise their babies this natural way. When baby is born, it takes months (possibly even a year or more) for him to realize that he’s actually a separate entity from you and so he prefers as much of a womb-like existence as possible in order to thrive, with constant doses of warmth, comfort, nurturance, sustenance, and a clean habitat.
Bowen, Massage, or Chiropractic: are great modalities to help with sleep. I’m a Bowen Practitioner and can attest to how many babes lose sleep due to a misalignment from the birth trauma, affecting literally the way their head is screwed onto their neck and shoulders. I’ve done minor soft tissue releases on babies and had parents report that baby sleeps soundly from then on. At home, you can rub your baby’s feet with coconut oil before bed, helping baby to relax and promote digestion, along with releasing any withheld gas that can cause baby to have a sleepless night.
Aromatherapy: is very helpful as mentioned in prior sections. One drop of lavender oil in a teaspoon of carrier oil (such as coconut oil) works well for massaging baby’s feet. You can also use the same ratio for a humidifier, vaporizer, or diffuser.
Cherry Pit Pillow/Pack: is an old European household remedy for colic and sleep. You can buy these small pillows from eBay or look for them at a reputable eco baby supply store, where more natural methods of healing are promoted. Simply heat it on a pan in the toaster oven for 10 minutes to heat up the cherry pits. When placed on baby’s belly, the cherry pits release a soothing, moist heat, helping bubbles of gas to diffuse.
A Wool Soaker: is a great way to help baby stay dry from a leaky diaper during the night. Sheep’s wool is designed to keep the rain from permeating to the animal’s skin through absorption, while the lanolin closer to the skin prevents the water from reaching the epidermis level, acting like a natural rain repellant. The company “Pooters Diapers” states, “When baby’s diaper becomes wet, the wool soaker wicks the moisture away from the diaper by absorbing it. Lanolin … keeps the urine from leaking back out of the wool …”. Baby is more likely to sleep through the night if her clothes stay dry and more comfortable.
There is typically a reason for baby to wake during the night. As his parents, it is up to you to go through a mental checklist to determine why this is. Co-sleeping babes do best with an easily accessible breast for nourishment and comfort. Most moms learn to sleep through baby’s latching on to the breast and subsequent drifting back off to sleep. Occasionally, baby will be wet and need to have a diaper change before sleep can be restored.
When baby is 4-7 months, teething can be the issue as he matures. A nightmare or night terror can be the cause for his waking. At other times, it can be due to the fact that there is a full moon! Here are some safe homeopathic remedies to use for specific issues. If this doesn’t help, it’s because there is a deeper issue, like vaccines or a genetic miasm (inherited predisposition to disease) in the way, preventing baby from getting a deep, restorative sleep. Let us know if the latter scenario is the case as we bring years of training to be able to solve the root cause of baby’s ills, so that you can all sleep like babies!
Aconite: is a great remedy for when baby has been exposed to a dry northeast wind during winter, aggravating a high fever of even 105 degrees Fahrenheit, along with an earache. Baby might be just fine upon going to bed, however, he wakes shrieking around midnight, clearly in pain. Look for restlessness, dry body heat, and increased thirst. Baby may be writhing in pain with extreme sensitivity to touch, suffering burning or even violent pain.
Arnica: is a good remedy for when baby seems to have his internal clock mixed up; drowsy without being able to nap during the day, but able to sleep during early evening and then wakens with a hot head at night, with fear that he will suffer pain again. Older children will complain of feeling exhausted upon waking with terrible dreams about animals, death, and even mutilated bodies. During sleep, children who need Arnica will groan, murmur, talk, snore, and pass stool and urine involuntarily after having toilet trained.
Belladonna: is one of our chief remedies for right sided earaches and for waking violently with pain and high fever at midnight, as mentioned in the prior section. Baby will be restless, agitated, and typically screeching in pain. Belladonna with solve this state outright.
Chamomilla: is a great remedy for fussy babies who need to be constantly rocked or nursed to sleep. Look for right-sided earaches, red face, a more low-grade fever, around 102 or 103 degrees Fahrenheit. In a Cham. state, baby will give you the impression that there is absolutely nothing you can do to appease her as she’ll reject absolutely everything that you offer, pushing it and you away.
Coffea: is derived from coffee. In homeopathic terms (like cures like), an over-stimulated baby needs a stimulant to calm down. I used to keep a tin of organic coffee in the freezer for my own children to take a wee sniff from. Actually, I still have the same tin at my office (I don’t drink coffee) for babes I see in person who are suffering an over-stimulated melt-down. All I do is open the lid of the tin of coffee in my office and watch for baby, and mom or dad too, to take a couple of whiffs of the aroma. Within a couple of minutes, baby is completely calm, gurgling, and usually drifting off to sleep. If you’re nursing, you can take the homeopathic remedy to promote sleep for your baby as it transfers through the breast milk. We will never recommend drinking coffee while breastfeeding as in this volume, you’ll actually create the opposite result by aggravating baby’s delicate nervous system and making them wired on caffeine with disastrous sleep results.
Nux Vomica: is for what I call the jack in the box syndrome. It will seem that you just get baby off to sleep and he keeps popping awake all night long for no rhyme or reason, like he’s woken by the least noise or movement. In proper ascending potencies, Nux. will also help detox baby’s organ system of any prior medications or antibiotics should the situation arise, helping baby sleep more soundly.
Medications, and vaccines, administered at birth can play havoc with baby’s central nervous system and digestive organs, making it difficult for him to settle properly into sleep. Nux. is one of the remedies we use when clearing the actual drug nosodes from baby’s system based on natural homeopathic law. A nosode is the homeopathic term for the remedy made from the exact drug administered, taking “like cures like”, or the similimum, up to “exact cures exact”.
Pulsatilla: is a great remedy for right-sided ear infections, as mentioned above, with a more low-grade temperature around 103 degrees Fahrenheit. Your baby will be profoundly clingy and needy with a desire to be carried everywhere, consoled, and kissed, but is less capricious and contrary than the Chamomilla state described above.
Flower Essences for Sleep
To help yourself and baby to sleep, we recommend Bach’s “Rescue Sleep” and “Rescue Sleep Liquid Melt”. I recall certain stressful days with my own baby where I was still measuring my own sense of self by how many things I was able to tick off my list. Being attached to certain outcomes with an infant or toddler creates a sure disaster. When children out number the parent or parents, you’re bound to be pinioned under your children’s expectations over and above your own. This is just how it is, for now. It will get easier, but for now, you answer solely to your child’s needs, dropping most of what you desire to do or find fulfilling. You’ll get back there.
Often, when I had a yearning to do something, or I had a deadline, or place to be by a certain time, I would be rendered a high-strung anxious mess by the time bedtime came around with unresolved feelings of failure that turned up as left-over anxiety, resentment, or even anger from the day. I learned first hand that this is a disastrous state of mind to try and put a baby down to sleep, when I was feeling electrified with unresolved impatience. I’ve often referred to infants, babies, and toddlers as being the canary in our adult coal mines, picking up on every miniscule bit of angst, mirroring every bit of it for our not so pleasurable viewing. They will literally torture you with your own mirror.
Bach’s Flower Essences, including Walnut, in the case I just described above, in addition to the remedies below, can help you and your child calm, relax, and let go to sleep; enabling you both to face another day with refreshed eyes, letting go the unnecessaries, focusing more on simply “being” than “doing.”
Here are the remedies contained in “Bach’s Rescue Sleep” Remedy, captured right from their website:
White Chestnut: To help ease restless mind.
Star of Bethlehem: For trauma and shock.
Clematis: For the tendency to “pass out”, and unconsciousness, being ‘far away’ and not present mentally.
Cherry Plum: Fear of mind giving way, verge of breakdown, anger.
Impatiens: For irritability, tension, and fidgety.
Essential oils, or aromatherapy, for baby is safe provided you stick to the oils recommended in this book and use them according to the dilution that we’ve suggested. In the early evening, I used to prepare a warm bath for my baby (be sure to use only natural cleansers for baby’s tub!) with a drop of lavender. Usually their dad did the bathing as this was their time to connect and give me a moment to clean up the kitchen after supper, or to just sit and have a moment to orient myself in the world, to make note of some grocery items needed, or to just ponder my own feelings with some chamomile tea and my journal.
After baby was out of the bath, their dad would give them a baby gentle massage over their little bodies, putting them on the floor while they lay on a cotton receiving blanket or on their changing table. I taught him how to always massage baby’s belly in a clockwise motion to encourage the release of gas bubbles and good digestion, by following the large intestines natural route to the rectum. When massaging baby, the pressure should be about the same as you would use to rub your eye-ball when your lid is closed. This is a good way to remind our stronger, more burly hubbys what the pressure should be. Baby will love the wonderful time to bond and relax through touch with their daddy.
Massage Oil Blend
1 drop of Lavender
1 drop Geranium
1 drop Roman Chamomile
and 30 ml of Sweet Almond, Olive, or Coconut Oil
Blend all of the ingredients together well, using on babies 3 months and older. As mentioned above, you can use a drop of lavender or chamomile in their bath with some raw goat’s or cow’s milk to help promote sleep. I would also wear lavender oil on my own clothing or skin while nursing baby before bed. I still do this when a cranky baby comes in for a consultation with their mom, to promote comfort and security for both of them.
I’ve always used essential oils in a room diffuser, vaporizer, or even a pot of steaming water that a child can not reach. One drop of lavender, Roman chamomile, or geranium in about 3 cups of water works well.
Excerpted in part from our new bestselling book on Amazon:
One fascinating doorway into diagnosis is through a patient’s food cravings. There are many aspects to cravings, and different reasons for their existence — from basic nutritional imbalances, to influences coming from different diseased states of mind. I’ll present a sampling of some different cravings and their possible meanings, but this list is far from exhaustive, and leaves many more possibilities unspoken.
Imbalances in the glandular typology — Based on the patient’s dominant gland type, an state of imbalance will lead to particular food cravings. An imbalanced thyroid type, for example, will crave refined carbs (bread, cakes, cookies, etc.), sugars, and stimulants such as caffein. An out-of-balance adrenal type will crave rich, salty foods, high in cholesterol, as well as alcohol. The problem with these glandular imbalances, once the person starts to stimulate themselves with these craving foods, is that it becomes a downward spiral where they crave these foods more and more, have less and less energy, and begin to gain weight.
An expression of the patient’s healthy constitution (genotype) — Different genotypes will have a relationship to certain foods as basic preferences. These aren’t cravings under normal circumstances, but can become so under more stressed circumstances. A phosphorous, for example, has a natural preference for salty foods, but they may start craving them to excess under stress. They also tend to enjoy very spicy foods. A Pulsatilla constitution may crave fatty foods, including butter (watch out for those pulsatilla children who tend to stick their fingers right into the butter dish to scoop out a treat!), and these may increase as full blown cravings when under stress (which would typically be a relationship issue for Pulsatilla).
An expression of an underlying disease state (of mind) — This category is large and quite interesting, as it includes many types of cravings which are not accounted for by the usual factors of nutritional imbalances or deficiencies. A state of unresolved grief, for example, represented by the remedy Natrum Muriaticum, will have a tremendous craving for salty foods. (It takes a well honed diagnostician to tell the difference between this salt craving from a Phosphorous salt craving). The reasons for having strong cravings for alcohol are many and varied, but to pick one remedy as an example, Lachesis, would relate to an emotional state related to many pent-up, undischarged emotions which seeks to have some way of trying to dissipate them (although the alcohol doesn’t actually provide a true discharge).
This is a very brief sampling to give you a taste of some of the thinking and differential diagnosis required to properly understand the meaning of a craving. I often find these symptoms some of the most useful in clinic, as they tend to be strong and distinct patterns in the patient seeking to be resolved.
I’ve been enjoying listening to narrated audio books, which have re-connected me back to a love for literature which I generally don’t have time to read amongst all the non-fiction studies I do. I recently listened to the novel The Unbearable Lightness of Being, which is a book I had read a number of years ago, but now was able to see through a Heilkunst lens.
The first striking Heilkunst element of this novel is the relationship between the two primary characters, as expressed through their genotypes – Tomas, the perfect image of Lycopodium, and Tereza as a Pulsatilla. Tomas is the quintessential womanizer, who cannot understand why society has artificially joined together the concepts of love and sex. His scalpel-sharp intellect neatly cleaves these two concepts from each other, allowing them to exist independently of each other in his life. Against his own principles, he does fall in love with Tereza, yet he cannot stop himself from having as many love affairs as possible, which torments Tereza throughout their relationship. One of the challenges of the Pulsatilla constitution is that they may hold on to a relationship even past the point where they should.
The novel is very well written, and addresses a number of themes, especially related to the aftermath in the Czech society after the Soviet invasion of 1968. To live under such a controlled society brings out some of the worst in some of the characters, and the author uses that as a central meditation for understanding what their inner struggles are.
Under any form of constraining government, anyones character structure will be pushed into further conflict within itself, and a range of unhealthy behaviours will result. Tomas loses his career as a surgeon out of refusing to rescind an article he published in a newspaper which was critical of the regime, and lives out the remainder of his life as a window washer, and then as a farm hand. In terms of his character structure, he is a Phallic Narcissistic type, which means that he is perpetually driven to try to obtain a genital release with “anything in a skirt”, but the discharge is never complete, and the manic cycle perpetuates.
Film and literature often provide some of the best living images of particular constitutional types, as well as character types. The nature of good art is that it reaches into the truth of life, and presents it in condensed, easy-to-digest forms. Which film or literature characters have cemented into your mind as such clear examples?
This blog is part of a series; its original title was Heilkunst Basics : Grade Twelve (“Know Thyself”)
I have previously described the homeopathic constitutional types (6 genotypes, and 6 phenotypes), and at this point, I want to further contextualize them within our ongoing exploration of the Heilkunst curriculum of health. From a practical point of view, prescribing for the patient’s genotype and/or phenotype is one of the first therapeutic acts I take inside the consult room. The larger question, though, is to figure out exactly where they fit into Heilkunst in terms of its structure of three primary jurisdictions (Regimen, Medicine, and Education).
At first glance, it would seem obvious that the prescription of a specific homeopathic remedy for the genotype falls within the realm of ‘medicine’, since a medicinal substance (ie a so-called ‘homeopathic remedy’) is being applied to make a specific change in the patient. This assumption is wrong, as you’ll see once you realize that the realm of Medicine involves the application of a medicine to cure a specific disease. The application of the constitutional remedy, on the other hand, is not being applied to cure any state of disease, but rather as a means to balance the underlying state of health. This falls, then, into the realm of Regimen, which has the job of dealing with imbalances.
The story doesn’t end there, though! Aside from using the constitutional remedy in this Regimenal application, leveraging your own self-knowledge through knowing your genotype opens into the beginnings of the third jurisdiction (Education). While our whole identity contains much more than just our genotype, it does provide a kind of stepping stone into the larger imperative of “know thyself!”. While identifying someone’s genotype may sometimes be a very entertaining party trick, the exercise of knowing yourself is much more in-depth and multi-dimensional. These unfold along the pathway of our in-built desire program and resonance function.
These questions of “who am I?” and “what do I want to do with my life?” are perfectly placed at the end of our high school curriculum, when the patient is now properly prepared to enter the highest jurisdiction of Therapeutic Education.
The six genotypes (basic homeopathic personality types) are made up of four mineral remedies, and two plant. The four mineral remedies each appear on the periodic table, and studying them from this perspective sheds further light on the essence of these types. By examining the location of each of the elements on the periodic table, its implicit core theme illuminates another dimension of each of these constitutional types.
The four mineral genotypes are : sulphur, calcarea carbonicum, phosphorous, and silicea. Here is there theme according to their place on the periodic table, and what it illuminates about the constitutional type:
Sulphur — appearing on the third row of the periodic table, it is a theme related to identity. The specific focus of sulphur is the dichotomy between pride and arrogance. Understanding the sulphur constitution in contrast to the silicea type, we can see that we are looking at the difference between our lower and higher ego functions respectively. There is no type which has a greater sense of their (lower ego) self than sulphur, and when healthy, they are incredibly grounded in the reality of here and now.
Calcarea Carbonicum — This element appears on the fourth row of the periodic table, which embodies issues of security. This remedy in particular is particularly structured around the issues of risk versus safety. At their best, they can be an incredible foundation to a family or community, and at their worst, they can leave much of their own potential untapped as the high price they pay to attain security, and to avoid any risks.
Phosphorous — Like sulphur, this is also an element on the third row of the periodic table, centred around issues of identity. The specific issue here is around the strength of their boundaries and sense of self. When healthy, this shows up as a very lively social activity, with much exchange of energy and communication with the people around them, but when unhealthy, you see someone who doesn’t know who they are beyond reflecting the identity of those around them. Attaining a true sense of independence is the struggle for phosphorous.
Silicea — Also from the third row (identity issues), the core theme here relates to a fundamental performance anxiety. At its worst, this can lead to some of the most intense forms of perfectionism, and an inability to reveal their true thoughts or work into a public space. This can become a form of high rigidity, and ultimately a very weak or brittle immune system. Sulphur’s greatest strength (grounded ego) is silicea’s greatest weakness — they can have a tremendous fear about being ‘seen’ by others, and therefore judged by standards which they feel impossible to meet.
The remaining two genotypes, lycopodium and pulsatilla are plant-based remedies, and are not on the periodic table, and would need to be examined within a context looking at the meaning of different plants.
For some of you, it was relatively easy to spot your own type, and less easy for others. That’s about par for the course even inside the consult room when I am typing a patient for their genotype. Some I know virtually instantaneously, and some take some time of getting to know the person before the genotype comes into focus.
Often, the issue is that the patient will identify with two or more of the genotypes, not being clear about which one is their fundamental. This is largely due to the fact that the six genotypes are grouped into two distinct triads. When I have to work at figuring someone’s genotype out, one of the first things I’ll differentiate is which triad they belong to — the upper (Silicea, Phosphorous, Pulsatilla), or the lower (Sulphur, Calcarea, Lycopodium)? Everyone tends to express up to two or even all three of the genotypes of their triad, rotating through them at different times of the day, or seasons of the year, or to adapt to different circumstances.
There is always one single genotype which is the fundamental for each person, but ultimately, the healthier we become, the more we express all six aspects of being human, constitutionally speaking. This is one reason why it sometimes takes time to identify the fundamental genotype. The paradox is, that the healthier we become, the more clear our fundamental genotype appears, yet the more we also express all six.
Another aspect which can make finding the genotype tricky, is that our personality is made up of more than just the homeopathic constitution. There are personality elements contributed from our blood type, our dominant glandular type, our astrological sign, and so on. Elements of our gender and our cultural background also make up various parts of how our personality appears in the world. All this, however, doesn’t take away from the fact that each genotype is clear, and can be apprehended as a distinct entity within us, and can be positively affected by the corresponding homeopathic remedy, as opposed to any abstract personality typing system (see the magazines at the grocery store check-out for examples) which doesn’t root itself into anything real within nature.
I know a number of people who resist the idea of typology, which I suppose is an expression of the feeling of their unique individuality. Typology and individuality don’t contradict each other, but are two dimensions we partake of in our make-up. Getting to know both your typological aspects, and your unique individuality will contribute to the unfolding of your highest state of health.
I come today to the sixth genotype, which is Pulsatilla. The remedy is made from the wind flower, and this is an apt image for this personality type, which is, on the one hand, flexible enough to blow backward and forward in the breeze, but on the other, possibly lacking in decisiveness from one moment to the next. They are highly impressionable, and easily influenced.
The Pulsatilla constitutional type represents the emotional mind, or gut mind, in complete opposition to Lycopodium’s intellectual mind. The emotional mind works through multiple connections and associations, rather than the linear A-B-C thinking of the intellect. Pulsatillas are very warm, both in personality as well as body temperature, and seek out deep and genuine connection. They can be extremely sweet in temperament and very affectionate and nurturing. They are of a shy nature, which is best represented by the word “coy”, and as adults will be sweetly seductive. The image of a small child peeking out at a stranger from behind mother’s skirt comes to mind. The “look at me, no don’t!” dynamic of the game “peekaboo” captures this feeling.
The key question both child and adult Pulsatilla asks either implicitly or explicitly is “do you love me?”, and will go to great lengths to either secure or hold onto a relationship, even holding on, unfortunately, to unhealthy or abusive ones.
Inside the consult room, they are extremely forthcoming with their feelings, and form a strong bond with the therapist. They weep easily, and elicit a feeling of sympathy. They feel better from any form of consolation, as opposed to some of the other constitutional types who prefer to process feelings on their own.
As the wind flower easily blows back and forth in the breeze, all aspects of Pulsatilla are highly changeable, whether in terms of their mood, or the nature or location of physical symptoms which seem to wander at will.
Physically, they can have a tendency to illness related to the reproductive organs, such as uterine fibroids in women, or prostate cancer in men. Generally, they have a tendency to become overheated, and have a need for getting outdoors into the fresh air, or at least having a window open.
Similarly to Lycopodium, they are very socially adept and adabtable, and are very natural networkers and connectors. They are usually fairly organized, and good at working on highly detailed projects. A good receptionist, for example, fulfills their role well the more they posses the healthy qualities of Pulsatilla. They are extremely loving parents, and always give a lot back to their closest family members and friends.
