Menyanthes

Menyanthes trifoliata
(Buck-bean)
Meny.
Motive
Menyanthes wants to be happy in absolute freedom and independence. He experiences conditions in life as coercion rather than an indispensable aid to correct action.

Transcendental
Only he is really free who is commanded only by himself, which only applies to God. Thus, man is only free when he alone is commanded by himself and at the same time accepts that he is subject to God and his own intellect. He cannot become happy if he strives for unlimited freedom and independence. As God is the highest good, He is the Goal that man is unable to avoid.

It lies in the nature of man to desire that which is best for him. Man has no freedom in this regard. Menyanthes rejects this, and experiences it as an interference with his freedom when he must strive for the highest Good. He wants to have absolute freedom, even in the choice of the Good. He wants, so to speak, also to have the possibility of choosing Evil.

A condition of man's relative happiness is to have acted correctly. In order to do so, man must be willing to receive any help that is offered him. This comes in part from the instinctive nature of his bodily functions, such as those of nourishment and reproduction, and in part from the reason, which constitutes an additional aid towards correct action. The reason is based on a sense of reality, on regard for the concrete conditions involved in any action, on moral sensitivity, and on the experience of other people.

Thomas Aquinas: Freedom is a concept which is connected with human action. The basis of any action is the will. If the will attains its goal, then the result is good, and the accompanying feelings are: brightness, joy, happiness and satisfaction. Evil is a lack of, or the absence of, the Good. Any act of will that fails in its goal brings pain and grief as a consequence, and the expectation of Evil leads to fear and anxiety. In relation to individual things, man's freedom is only limited by the collective, superior order of things and the freedom of other individual beings.

On the other hand, the general goals of the human will are not subject to freedom of choice. As man by nature is equipped with reason, his cognitions are not only directed towards sensuous, concrete things, but towards the collective, absolute existence, whose source is God. The desire of the reason is, therefore, not satisfied by partial goals, but only by the final purpose, i.e. the absolute Good. Full bliss man only attains in participating in the absolute being, and his will and actions are by nature directed towards this.

Man is acting with common sense when he tries to understand the coherence of all existence and acts in accordance with it, attuned to the good purposes of collective existence. This coherence Menyanthes rejects. He does not understand that the required attunement of the will according to the universal Good precisely causes man's freedom. This constitutes a guideline that makes man's actions easier, and makes him more independent of any partial good that might be incompatible with the universal Good.

Menyanthes disdains this relative human freedom, because he wants to have absolute freedom just as God. He does not want to be a conditioned creature, but, on the contrary, to be a precondition for creation himself. Real human freedom thus consists in using this guideline – which may be recognised with the aid of the reason – for his actions to help him act correctly, i.e. bliss-engendering. To Menyanthes, who rejects this help, action becomes an agony, and bliss unattainable.

Inner focus
Menyanthes is hypersensitive to anything that seems to be a limitation of his freedom. It is difficult for him to let himself be aided by his instincts, his common sense, or the opinions of those around him. Therefore, he suffers from a deeply ingrown feeling that happiness, satisfaction, and joy are unattainable, and that life with its daily decisions is a heavy burden.

Guilt
Menyanthes only wants to act in absolute freedom. He rejects those aids that would facilitate correct, daily action: instinct, common sense, and the experience of others.

Loss
As a consequence, Menyanthes loses the clarity and lightness of both thought and action. Likewise, he also loses confidence in that man, by his actions, may achieve the Good, and thus peace of mind, satisfaction, and joy. Menyanthes also loses integration with society, as he rejects subjecting himself to the needs of the greater whole. He becomes lonely. He loses control of his locomotor system and of the vegetative functions, which make themselves independent.

Punishment
Life becomes a burden, every decision an agony. Menyanthes feels as if he had to take a long walk, as if he had to walk for a long time exposed to a cold wind. He feels pressure exerted from outside. Someone is squeezing his heart. A heavy weight rests on his brain. As Menyanthes has lost confidence in being able to attain the Good, he feels continuously that something evil will happen. He shudders and shakes as when one hears of something horrible. His hairs stand on end. He feels anxiety in the stomach. He feels as if he is standing in cold water, and as if cold water is being poured into his ears. He often remains stuck in irresolution. Objects he looks at seem to be jumping, vibrations appear before his eyes, and in his head there arises a lapping feeling.

Main themes
1) Unable to attain the Good. Does not participate in amusements, gets stuck in mournful thoughts, indisposed to having fun, is dissatisfied. He constantly feels that something evil will happen. 2) Lack of freedom, coercion, heaviness and burden. The freedom and ease of thought is lost, a heavy burden rests on his brain, and this gives him problems with stooping. Menyanthes is hypersensitive to even light pressure and touch of the hand.

Themes

1. Something evil will happen. 2. Dissatisfied with himself and his position, disquiet. 3. Amusements, joy and sorrow. 4. Restlessness, haste and nervousness. 5. Shuddering, shaking, horrible stories. 6. Cold, damp and windy. 7. Fright. 8. Drawing, trembling. 9. Stiff, stiffening, cramps. 10. Repulsion, disgust. 11. Bitterness, sweetness. 12. Freedom and lightness. 13. Weight, heaviness. 14. Pressure, touch of the hand, pressure on a point. 15. Touch. 16. Bending the head, stooping. 17. Being alone, lonely. 18. Speech. 19. Work. 20. Constricted and squeezing about the heart. 21. Deliberation, thought sequence, thought stream. 22. Agg. after eating. 23. Not rested and tired in the morning. 24. 'There, there,' points with a finger. 25. Inclining the head to one side. 26. Objects are jumping. 27. Something hard under the eyelid. 28. Ringing, tinkling and roaring in the ears. 29. Food tastes good without hunger. 30. Sex without excitement or orgasm. 31. Long walk. 32. Rain. 33. Contrasts.

Secondary psora
Menyanthes suffers bitterly in his existence. Central is the deep feeling of not being free. Everything is experienced as a limitation of his freedom. Even instincts, a good mind, and the experience of others are perceived as coercion, though they would normally help in making his life easier. That everything is a burden is foremost in the mind of Menyanthes. Menyanthes is uncertain as regards establishing his goals and actions.

There is no longer any satisfaction in attaining his goals. The consequence of this is a constant dissatisfaction with everything. He begins to doubt whether he is able to act successfully without any assistance and help from outside. Uncertainty in the process of making decisions appears in the ambivalence that permeates the entire remedy picture, but also in the amelioration from laying on a hand, which symbolises assistance from outside.

The self-caused uncertainty at acting, finally leads to his doubting whether he will ever be able to act successfully, resulting in joy and satisfaction. He is thus convinced that the Good, and the accompanying bliss, is unattainable for him. Everywhere Evil threatens, and he feels doomed to live in grief and bitterness.

Egotrophy
In the denial of the loss, he radiates tranquillity and emphasises how easy life is for him. Even difficult situations are easily mastered thanks to his excellent instincts. He knows what he wants, because he is certain about his goals. He self-confidently masters all daily decisions, giving the impression of success and self-assurance. He can also be obsessively optimistic, exaggeratedly happy, and jocular.

In the repetition of the sin, he presents himself as proof of not being dependent on anyone. He is a completely free and independent person, a self-made man, who stresses that he has achieved his success entirely by himself without any help from others. A possible variant might be the egotistical hedonist who enjoys his pleasures, even at the expense of higher goods.

Physically, symptoms appear which express independence of innate instincts. He eats without feeling hunger. He feels the stomach is empty even if it is full, or is satisfied without having eaten. A strong urge for sex without any excitement or erection. These paradoxical symptoms are characteristic of Menyanthes, and appear in several different areas, for example, in the feeling of pressure and constriction, despite amelioration from pressure, etc.

Egolysis
The egolytic Menyanthes is an eccentric loser. Nothing succeeds any longer, because he approaches everything in such an impractical manner, and no longer understands anything. He is unable to carry out the simplest tasks. His notorious pessimism has a real cause. He withdraws completely from social life.

Alterolysis
Here Menyanthes tries to force his opinions through without regard to whether this would be of value to the whole, or would injure others. His goal is to conquer all obstacles that make his life difficult. He attacks everyone who offers him help, and accuses others of being responsible for his failures, because of their interference.

Dd
Menyanthes trifoliata rejects attuning his actions to the highest purpose of the whole, but diff. to Merc. and Nat-p. is the motive about the freedom of choice. As opposed to Plb., Meny. is more about the rejection of assistance and help in making decisions; that is, it is more a moral issue. In diff. with Dros., Menyanthes wants to be able to decide freely and independently from his own relative good.

Menyanthes wants to be able to act in absolute freedom and freedom is a hierarchically higher demand than independency from others and thus, in regard to rejected relative prerequisite, a broader and more extensive rejection than we find in Am-m. Menyanthes also rejects the other aids, which would have been able to ease his daily appropriate actions, such as instinct, common sense, and also, but not only the aid from the experiences of others. The loss of Menyanthes and the derived variety of symptoms therefore will be broader than with Am-m, and includes differentially more existential problems with loss of confidence in that man by his actions can achieve the good and thus peace of mind, satisfaction and happiness. Besides the system of locomotion, Menyanthes also has problems with more vegetative functions as compared to Am-m.

Rejects dependence as such, that is, as regards blessedness and perfection. He rejects any help from others in order to be able to live in a condition of satisfaction and blessedness (Masi).