Kent opens his lecture on PSORINUM:

PSORINUM is closely allied to SULPHUR the patient dreads to be washed. The skin over the body, especially of the face, looks filthy, though it has been well washed. A dingy, dirty, foul look, as if covered with dirt. Skin rough and uneven, cracks easily, bleeding fissures; it becomes rough and scaly. He cannot wash it clean. The skin of the hands is rough, chaps easily, becomes thick and scaly, easily cracks, breaks out in little scaly eruptions; looks unwashed; he always appears to have dirty hands

So, as with SULPHUR, there is a lot of involvement with the skin and skin conditions but what of the deeper picture?

SULPHUR is the remedy of surplus, it erupts from the ground, is found in volcano’s. PSORINUM is the remedy of poverty. The hippies were very SULPHUR and, although they attempted to get back to a simpler life, it was not an impoverished life it was full of colour (SULPHUR delusion sees rags as riches). PSORINUM does not have to be impoverished in terms of our society values but, along with BRYONIA, is one of the most indicated remedies for FEAR of poverty. SULPHUR is shallow in there thinking (always theorizing), PSORINUM is very concerned about their environment. Compare RHUS TOX concerned about their health, often in a new age way.

As with the miasm PSORA, there is always a struggle in PSORINUM. The healthy PSORINUM is always on the edge of their abilities to adapt. PSORINUM is a man climbing a mountain, suddenly he realizes he cannot continue and he cannot go back (compare PHOS ACID where there is no energy to go on). The idea is that he has reached a very risky point in life, in health, in business. There is nervous foreboding, despair of recovery and the FEAR of disaster. In health terms this could be FEAR of cancer.

In biblical terms, this is the fall of man. We were impoverished and made mortal. RUBRIC religious despair, anxiety about salvation, head feels separated from body, fear of being disabled, fear of going down hill, fear of death, suicidal disposition. As we are born we are released from paradise and so PSORINUM is a major remedy in pregnancy and birth (mother doesn’t urinate PSORINUM newborn doesn’t urinate ACONITE). Also often indicted at 37 weeks (itching, despair: won’t be good enough mother etc.)

PSORA is the miasm of underfunction, PSORINUM is made from scabies pus, so there is a destructive syphilitic taint in the psoric remedy.

The “impoverishment” often shows in CHILLINIESS. PSORINUM is a chilly remedy, need to wrap up even in summer (compare SULPHUR normally hot) and sudden chilliness in people is often a guiding symptom. They are always taking colds and it is often indicated after successful treatment with other remedies that just leave recurring colds. A general debility (despair of recovery in convalescence) or “weakness of the chest” (differentiate with TUBERCULINUM which is a complementary remedy – TUBERCULINUM desires travel PSORINUM gets stuck).

PSORINUM has aversion to wool and water, two of the symbols of mans needs to cover and his uncleanliness. Desire is often expressed as an “itch”. PSORINUM is made from scabies and, as such, is the original itch. RUBRIC despair from itching of the skin. Restlessness from eruptions, in children.

Therapeutically PSORINUM is often given as an inter-current in acute skin treatment when itching is the uppermost symptom. Several remedies have been given with improvement (not just in skin cases) and now they just ITCH. PSORINUM 200 csd and continue with your programme.

Descending doses of PSORINUM can bring the case “down” to the material level and so can then be treated at a physical level. This method was developed by Pritram Singh.

	Day 1	Day 2	Day 3	Days 4,5, 6 onwards
Night	PSOR 10M	PSOR 200	HEP SULP 6	Indicated Rx 6
Morning	PSOR 1M	PSOR 30	PSOR 6	Indicated Rx 6

There is a hunger and emptiness in PSORINUM, not necessarily physically in the stomach, although is found in RUBRIC ravenous appetite but grows thin, morning sickness in pregnancy and hunger at night in pregnancy (gets up to eat crackers or other dry food).

The remedy being made from pus means there is a putrefaction that shows in bad breath, putrid discharges from eruptions, offensive diarrhea, offensive sweat on feet.

They feel well the day before an attack, and can be affected by approaching storms. They have a strong periodicity and can be affected by the moon phases.

DREAMS Robbers, business, sitting on the toilet

OFFENSIVE – sweat, stools, skin

CLINICAL – Acne rosacea. Adenoids. Allergies. Anus, itching. Anxiety. Asthma. Backaches. Bedwetting. Blepharitis. Boils. Cancer. Cholera infantum. Colds. Cough. Constipation. Cornea, ulcers. Crusta lactea. Crusta serpiginosa. Debility. Depression. Despair. Diarrhea. Diphtheria. Dyspepsia. Eczema. Emaciation. Eruptions, itching. Gleet. Gonorrhea. Gouty. Hay fever. Headaches. Hemorrhages. Hemorrhoid. Hernia. Hydrocele. Hypoglycemia. Impotency. Influenza. Injuries. Itching. Leucorrhea. Lice. Lienteria. Liver, disorders. Malnutrition. Melancholy. Nose, redness. Odor, fetid. Ophthalmia. Otorrhea, fetid. Ozaena. Pericarditis. Peritonitis. Plica polonica. Polyps. Psoriasis. Quinsy. Scabies. Sciatica. Scurvy. Skin, disorders. Spina bifida. Spleen, disorders. Sprains. Syphilis. Throat, mucus. Tinea, capitis. Tonsils, concretions. Ulcers.

MODALITIES – Better heat, warm clothing, even in summer. Better washing, hard pressure, rest, being in a room. Better from coffee, profuse sweating, nosebleed. Better from lying with head low or quietly. Better when eating, but rush of blood to head is worse immediately after. Worse from cold, open air. Worse changing weather, storms, before thunderstorms. Worse evening, before midnight, night, morning on waking. Worse from heat of bed, wool clothes. Worse exertion in hot sunshine, walking, moving, washing. Worse pressure, rubbing, scratching, touch, contact of own limbs, bandage. Worse from suppressions. Liver is worse lying on right side. Over-lifting causes thoughts to vanish. Winter causes cough. Summer causes diarrhea, itching eruptions. Bedwetting is worse periodically, yearly, at the full moon.

SYMPTOMS particularly just after a crisis: debility after acute disease, improvement for a time then comes to a standstill, ailments from loss of fluids, or semen, in anemic person, ravenous hunger immediately after eating, craving alcohol where there is a history of alcoholism in family background.