-IBIS-1.5.0-
tx
cutaneous system
herpes zoster
psychospiritual approaches

metaphors and correlations

• Created through chronic anxiety/irritation due to feeling overwhelmed; activity in one's environment continually makes the person feel physically, financially, or materially insecure and vulnerable. (Shealy, p. 208)
• Fear and tension; waiting for the other shoe to drop; too sensitive. (Hay, 1984, p. 182)

Chinese psychophysiology:
Liver ~ Gan is the home of the Hun (Ethereal Soul); it relates to decisiveness, control, and the principle of emergence; cleanses the Xue (Blood); maintains smooth flow of Qi and Xue (Blood); reflects emotional harmony and movement; and expresses itself in the nervous system.
» Healthy expressions are kindness, spontaneity, and ease of movement.
» Liver Xu (Deficiency) signs include impotence; frigidity; pain in thighs, pelvic region, and throat; ready tendency to "the blahs" (Seem, p. 28); timidity; depression; irritability; vertigo; pruritus; dry skin and/or tendons; asthma; aching at the waist; hernia; and difficulty raising head up and down.
» Liver Qi Stagnation reflects and accentuates emotional constraint as the Liver's function of facilitating smooth flow in the body is constricted. Stagnation is associated with frustration, irritability, tension, and feeling stuck. With time this pattern tends to produce a gloomy emotional state of constant resentment, repressed anger or depression, along with tightness in the chest, frequent sighing, abdominal tension or distension, and/or a feeling of a lump in the throat with difficulty in swallowing. (Maciocia, p. 216)
» Liver Shi (Excess)
signs include discontent; anger; pain in lumbar region and genitals (Seem, p. 28); muscular tension; excessive sex drive; insomnia; moodiness; excitability; genital diseases; red, tearing eyes; compulsive energy; and bitter taste in the mouth. Chronically suppressed anger can implode and give rise to Fire in the Liver and Gall Bladder with symptoms of irritability, bitter taste, headaches, etc.
» Liver Wind derives from Liver Yin Xu (Deficiency) and/or Liver Xue Xu (Blood Deficiency) and their subsequent inability to embrace the Yang, and can manifest as joint stiffness, dizziness, tremor, paralysis, convulsions, rashes, itching, and neurological problems.

Gall Bladder ~ Dan is the source of courage and initiative, and is responsible for decision-making as the bodily Minister of Justice; and controls circulation of the nourishing and protecting energies [Ying Qi and Wei (Protective) Qi]. Its channel purifies Yang energy in the body.
»
Healthy expressions are kindness, decisiveness, control, and spirit of initiative.
» Gall Bladder Shi (Excess) signs include tiredness; sighing; irritability; bitter taste in the mouth in the morning; pain in all joints; edematous knees and legs (Seem, p. 29); tinnitus; lateral headache; heaviness in head and stomach; muscular spasms; and limbs slightly cold. Chronically suppressed anger can implode and give rise to Fire in the Liver and Gall Bladder.
»
Anger, frustration, and resentment can cause Liver Qi Stagnation which, in turn, can produce Heat which affects the Gall Bladder.


therapies

affirmation:
• (Skin) I lovingly protect myself with thoughts of joy and peace. The past is forgiven and forgotten. I am free in this moment. (Hay, 1984, p. 183)
• I am relaxed and peaceful because I trust the process of life. All is well in my world. (Hay, 1984, p. 182)

theotherapy:
(skin problems) Dionysus, Heracles, Orestes, Pelops (Lemesurier, p. 115)

psychotherapy:
• Whatever happens to the skin corresponds to an inner process. The diverse functions of the skin (protection, contact, expression, excretion, respiration, temperature regulation, sexuality, etc.) are associated with a common theme that alternates between the two poles of separation and contact. Something is bursting through our limits, or trying to armor an inner sensitivity. Questions to ask in the event of skin problems:
» What is it that is getting under my skin? What is trying to burst through barriers?
» How easy/difficult is it to make contact with other people? Do I desire intimacy?
» Have I condemned myself to solitary confinement? What is useful about this?
(Dethlefsen, p. 162, 170)

process paradigm: (experientially oriented)
• What is the symptom preventing me from doing? What is the symptom making me do? (see process interview: cutaneous system)

related materia medica listings:
the shadow and physical symptoms
skin metaphors and correlations
converting a symptom to a signal
affirmations: guidelines and precautions
theotherapy
hypnotherapy
process paradigm


footnotes

Reprinted from The Foundations of Chinese Medicine, Maciocia, Giovanni, 1989, by permission of the publisher Churchill Livingstone, a division of Elsevier Limited.