-IBIS-1.5.0-
tx
digestive system
liver cancer
psychospiritual approaches

metaphors and correlations

see also:
cancer patients: personality characteristics
cancer correlations: psychoneuroimmunology

• Liver is the seat of anger and of emotion in general. Forgiveness is important. Have the patient tell someone s/he trusts about the feelings being experienced.
(Epstein, p. 145)
• Liver represents seat of anger and primitive emotions. Problems have to do with chronic complaining; justifying fault-finding to deceive yourself; feeling bad. (Hay, 1984, p. 173)
• Associated with solar plexus chakra; liver represents cleansing of toxins, including emotional toxins. (Shealy, p. 183)

Chinese psychophysiology:
Kidney ~ Shen stores Jing (Essence) and governs birth, growth, reproduction, development, and aging; houses the Zhi (Will); expresses ambition and focus; produces the Marrow which generates the spinal cord, "fills up" the brain, and possibly manifests through the immune system; provides the "Fire of Life" through its Yang functions for the digestive processes and the functions ascribed to the adrenals; carries the constitutional endowment from the parents; and displays the effects of sexual dissipation, overwork, chronic degenerative processes, and extreme stress. Water is the mother of Wood, hence Kidney's relationship to Liver.
» Healthy expressions are gentleness, groundedness, and endurance.
» Kidney Xu (Deficiency) signs include indecisiveness; confused speech; dreams of trees submerged under water; cold feet and legs; abundant sweating (Seem, p. 28); fearfulness; apathy; chronic fatigue; discouragement; scatteredness; lack of will; negativity; impatience; difficult inhalation; low sex drive; lumbago; sciatica; and musculoskeletal irritation and inflammation, especially when worse from touch. As always, Yin Xu (Deficiency) predisposes to Empty Fire and/or acute inflammation.
» Intense or prolonged fear depletes the Kidney. Often chronic anxiety may induce Xu (Deficiency) and then Fire within the Kidney. (Maciocia, p. 250) Overwork, parenting, simple aging, and a sedentary or excessively indulgent lifestyle all contribute significantly to Kidney Xu (Deficiency).

Liver ~ Gan is the home of the Hun (Ethereal Soul); it relates to decisiveness, control, and the principle of emergence; stores and cleanses the Xue (Blood); maintains smooth flow of Qi and Xue (Blood); controls the muscles, ligaments, and tendons, especially the contractility of the muscles and moistening of the sinews; has an intimate relationship with the genitals and Lower Warmer; opens into the eyes; expresses itself in the fingernails, toenails and nervous system; and reflects emotional harmony and movement.
» 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 eyes, skin, and/or tendons; asthma; aching at the waist; hernia; and difficulty raising head up and down. Liver Xue Xu (Blood Deficiency) predisposes to Xue Yu (Blood Stasis).
» Tumors and other masses are considered a form of Xue Yu (Blood Stasis) and thus ultimately are derived from Qi Stagnation. 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)


therapies

imagery:
• liver and eagle (Chavez)
• beaver dammed (Chavez)
related materia medica listings: imagery for immune enhancement

psychotherapy:
• Questions of interest for those suffering from a liver problem:
» In what areas have I lost my capacity for accurate assessment and evaluation?
» In what respects can I no longer distinguish between what is good for me and what is 'poisonous'?
» Where have I been taking things to excess? To what extent am I aiming too high (delusions of grandeur) and generally going beyond the limit?
» Am I lacking in confidence? decisiveness? (Dethlefsen, p. 140)

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

related materia medica listings:
the shadow and physical symptoms
converting a symptom to a signal
cancer patients: personality characteristics
cancer correlations: psychoneuroimmunology
cancer treatments: immune enhancement
(includes behavioral, theotherapy, meditation, hypnotherapy)
imagery for immune enhancement
imagery: precautions
imagery: principles: receptive or programmed?
imagery: techniques
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.