thanks for the ideas, cha cha. i will look at nat mur and aurum again: actually, i did look at nat mur already, and discounted it, but i don't know the remedy well enough to remember why i decided against it, so i'll have to look again. and aurum i did not actually look up, but i know it to a degree from my days of rampant self-experimentation, and i felt it represents just too deep a depression for this patient. but, as i say, i will look at both of these more closely.

one of the things that bothers me about ignatia is the absence "...of misplaced energy and reactivity," as you said, or as H. had it, the "...rapid alternations of gaiety and disposition to weep." this may be there, though, possibly subdued in its expression by the heaviness of the current depression --i'll have to consider that next time i see her. i am also aware of a kind of sense of her as 'casual,' and also 'languid.' i said she wore an ironic smile, but maybe i meant sardonic...or both: she wears resentment and guilt equally well, "look where i've got myself to now, damn you!"

as to how i repertorized the case ... well ... if you promise not to have me thrown off the bb, i'll try to explain: i have this habit when i write, that i will not uncommonly insert a word that i have never heard of before, but it sounds right and looks good. after writing it down, i look it up in the dictionary, and invariably i find i've 'created' a real word that fits perfectly in the context in which i used it. this is how i work. this is how i learn. this is why i take a long time getting where i want to go, as though i understand the process first, piece by piece until the whole picture fits ... and then i go back and do the detail work.

anyway, the long and short of it is that i am still a rank beginner, i know precious few remedies and fewer in any kind of detail, and i know the repertories least of all. what happened is this: during my first appointment with "jane," i found myself sitting there, listening to her, looking at her, and thinking, "she's ignatia."

go figure. ignatia is one of a good number of remedies that is kinda at the tip of my tongue, familiar because of frequent references, not because of actual fingertip knowledge. i know i've seen people discuss ignatia here, and i own a number of MMs and also bailey and coulter's children, so out of all of this, somehow, my unconscious thesaurus pulled out another good hunch - though i hardly have the right to say this as a "homeopath," i have this strong personal conviction that ignatia has to be the right remedy, because i'm always right about these things (i wish i could pick stocks like this). still, its back to the books, and further questions for you guys, before i decide anything. honestly, i prefer people who come in and tell me they hurt all over, as though they'd fallen down a flight of stairs ... now that's the kind of prescription i feel ready for!

anyway, i checked in coulter and then went to the MMP. honestly, you coulda knocked my socks off with the MMP: underline most of the sentences in my profile of jane, and you'll find them in H.'s ignatia, down to the bold-faced "in the joint of the humerus, when bending the arm back, a pain as from prolonged hard work..."!

but your question, "...the thing which needs to be cured, and why?" i think the grief reaction, but not simply as a reaction to an actual death, it's "richer" than an uncomplicated mourning, and seems to be a kind of meeting place for a number of issues: it parallels the loss of mother, especially in the patient's failure to communicate her love adequately to mother or boyfriend; it's duplicates in some respects the ambivalent relation to father (married) and the father's (and, maybe moreso, the step-mother's) verbal abuse ("he" published that he was married in his obituary, leading to scornful reactions of many around her); the succumbing to pressure of a hostile workplace (a really bitchy supervisor-"father").

ok - that's it - pick me apart. seriously, that's why i'm here. thanks for your help.

bach

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"The need to perform adjustments for covariates...weakens the findings." BMJ Clinical Evidence: Mental Health, (No. 11), p. 95.... It's that simple, guys: bad numbers make bad science.