 We are definitely in the dog days of summer here in the desert southwest. It is monsoon season but the rain is not landing on us. We do have a couple of rooms in the house that have a little air conditioner, the rest of the house is cooled with a swamp cooler. For the most part, I definitely prefer the swamp over refrigerated air — the windows need to be open for them to work properly (we still hear the birds and the the little fountain!) and we’re not hermetically sealed inside and they add some much needed moisture into our desert house. For those unfamiliar, a swamp cooler is an evaporative cooler, meaning it only works during low humidity. How high does the humidity need to be for the swamp cooler to turn the house swampy? Not very — once we go above 30% humidity, it starts to feel fruitless. See here for more information. As I write this, the swamp has cooled our porch down to 80 (from the 99 outside), but with 56% humidity I have the unusual (for us) experience of a water glass covered in condensation. These hot and (relatively) humid days, remind me of the movie 12 Angry Men. Have you seen it? The original film with Henry Fonda (1957)? Fantastic movie. If you haven’t seen it, put it on the list — again, the original black and white movie. (You’ll get over it not being in color soon enough. You can do it.) 12 Angry Men is about the 12 jurors stuck in a jury room where one juror holds out against the others — and, of course they have to confront their own biases and demons while enduring a hot, sweaty environment. There’s so much to say about this movie — swimming against the current… doing what is right even though you’re alone and it’s difficult… bias, prejudice and yes, anger. I’m not the only homeopath who watches a movie and wonders what homeopathic remedy may benefit each character. (See also, Fictional Wounds for a previous take.) I wish I had taken notes during the movie to flesh out the characters and their anger. In hindsight, it was really only 11 angry men and 1 who was determined, rather than angry. With these memories of this movie popping into my head with these hot and sweaty days, I thought I would take a look at different kinds of anger. Well, sort of — more of how anger is expressed or what sets it off. Let’s now look at our 12 angry men. It has been a couple of years since I last watched it and I didn’t take notes, so I did ask Grok for a review of the characters to refresh my memory (turns out I did pretty well without any notes — the movie must have made a bigger impression on me than I realized!)
Let’s ruminate on some anger remedies (and, rubrics)! Are there other rubrics? Absolutely! It’s a movie, I went very surface level, here! Note: I used Murphy (via RadarOpus) unless otherwise noted and I kept it to just two possible remedies for each man — just enough to get a broad overview of the anger aspect of each remedy. For the man who had to be right (#1) I would consider Platinum metallicum or Lycopodium.
#2, the man who was angry about missing a ball game, Ignatia or Gelsemium.
Man #4 is an angry bigot. The top 2 remedies are Causticum and Lycopodium.
Our 5th man is timid and doesn’t take kindly to being talked over. Here comes Lycopodium again, as well as Staphysagria.
Juror #6 is the man who is angry about being looked down upon due to his upbringing. Once again, we are comparing between Staphysagria and Lycopodium.
Angry man #7 is the one who would get angry when he felt the older jurors were not being shown the respect he thought they deserved. Colocynthis and Causticum.
#8 (should probably be #1 since he was the foreman) is frustrated by the lack of order — he worked hard to keep thing running properly. Aurum metallicum and Calcarea carbonica are two remedies which take their responsibilities seriously.
The 9th man was indignant about how he perceived others’ prejudices clouding their judgement. The two remedies I would think about for this man are Nux vomica and Ignatia.
Juror #10 is the man who was righteously angry that others were not showing the proper respect to the justice system. This was a harder one to figure out, but I came down to Kali carb and Cuprum metallicum.
#11 is a man who was irritated at having to be inconvenienced. This one, too, has so many underlying possibilities, it’s hard to get a handle on it, but I am going to make a couple of assumptions in my rubric choices. The main remedy that comes up is Nux vomica but further down the way were two rubrics that led me to an interesting choice of remedy that I would not have thought about: Ipecac.
12 Angry Men nicely illustrates the individualization of homeopathy — there is not one remedy that would address the various expressions of anger in all these men. Their past experiences and the way their anger shows up and what they do with that anger — these are all very important considerations in finding a suitable homeopathic remedy. This article has been rolling around in my head since I last saw this movie a couple of years ago and I now know why it took so long to see the light of day — it’s actually a really big topic. (Look for the Digging Deeper into Angry Remedies soon.) It turns out, though, that I was more than happy to while away some of these really hot days sitting in front of my fan, listening to my little fountain outside the open window and finally putting some possible homeopathic remedies to these characters. Julia Coyte, CHom Classically Practical homeopath #wellnessawaits Reference listArndt, H. E., 1904. First Lessons in the Symptomatology of Leading Homoeopathic Remedies. accessed through Radar Opus software.
Buck, H., 1895. The Outlines of Materia Medica & Clinical Dictionary. accessed through Radar Opus software. B. Jain Publishers. Clarke, J. H., 1902. A Dictionary of Practical Materia Medica. accessed through Radar Opus software. Cowperthwaite, A. C., 1909. A Text-book of Materia Medica and Therapeutics, Characteristic, Analytical and Comparative. accessed through Radar Opus software. Farrington, H., 1935. Homeopathy and homeopathic prescribing : A study course for graduate physician. Master, F., 2017. Clinical observations of children’s remedies. New Delhi, India: B. Jain Publishers (P) Ltd. Master, F. J., 2003. Suppressed staphysagria. B. Jain Publishers. Murphy, R., 2003. Homeopathic medical repertory : a modern alphabetical repertory. Blacksburg, Va.: H.A.N.A. Press. New England Journal of Homeopathy, 1995, 4 (2). accessed via Radar Opus software New England Journal of Homeopathy, 1996, 5 (2). accessed via Radar Opus software Shore, J., 1990. Seminar Glasgow [Scotland]. Presented at the Seminar Glasgow. Accessed through Radar Opus software Vermeulen, F., 2004. Prisma : the arcana of materia medica illuminated : similars and parallels between substance and remedy. accessed through Radar Opus software. Haarlem, Netherlands: Emryss.
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Julia Coyte, CHomI am passionate about homeopathy and I love sharing this passion. Having a working knowledge of homeopathy shouldn't be kept a secret. If people have the ability to help themselves, their children and their friends when they have minor ailments, life just gets better for everyone. That is the purpose behind Ruminating on Remedies. Archives
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