Adulthood crisis and response of various temperaments

Dr. Kathika Chattopadhyay

Adulthood– the most constructive and the longest part of human life; covers the age from 20 to 60 yrs and divided in to three phases:
1.EARLY (20 To 35yrs)
2.MIDDLE (35 To 50yrs)
3.MATURED (50 to 60yrs)

After crossing infancy, childhood and adolescence; when a person enters in the early adulthood, feels to change his/her life; finds self identity, security, stability to fulfill the basic needs. Generally for females priority of this phase is given in marriage to settle the life and in male it is obvious the first importance is well established career making and next enjoying married life.

When they plan and enter in the new world of adulthood with the colorful dreams in eyes, hopes in heart and spirit in mind; often the events of new life are very much tragic or not normal to that particular person in respect to his/her attitude, culture, way of thinking and values of life, what he/she has obtained from the very childhood.

Phases of early adulthood
Young adults are usually very much sensitive to various stressors coming from their surrounding environment (various unnatural or negative behaviors like harassment, cheating, humiliation, crisis etc.). When they receive those feelings from their close relationship or from working field or after entering in new life through marriage, they suffer in frustration and react in different ways.

Temperament is a peculiar physical character and mental cast of an individual, which starts when the parent cells unite to form a zygote, the very beginning of new life. The type of temperament that an individual acquires, depends not only on his/her ancestors’ temperaments and hereditary stigma; but also depends on the state of mind of both the partners during the period of conception; the psychic state of mother during gestational period and perhaps even after birth, when the new born is connected with mother for fulfilling it’s physical need during the phase of lactation (as it’s an experimental truth that the emotion of mother affects offspring during breast milk feeding, eg. if mother feeds her breast milk after getting anger baby may suffer in convulsive seizures.)

A human organism either acquires single temperament or inherits more than one temperament by birth. Once the cast is formed, it can not be changed by medication. However, when he/she is exposed in prolonged environmental non familial influence, his life harmony is affected and there is occurrence of another set of behavioral pattern due to appearance of a different temperament or layer formation due to prolonged exposure in unfavorable circumstances . While the Homoeopathic remedial approach can cure the particular layer, as well as the set of mental disorganization with physical complaints caused on account of the influence of the acquired temperament, but the basic cast can never be changed.

According To Dr. H.A.Rorerts:  Temperaments are to a very large extent physiological, but besides the strature of the patient the matter of temperaments implies colouring, functional tendencies of circulation, elimination, respiration & so on; and at the same time mental and emotional tendencies in reaction to environment and circumstances.”   

The common crisis of early adulthood:

A) The common problems in intimate relationship
The early adulthood is the time of a crisis feeling and a feeling of tension between isolation and intimacy. The desire for heterosexual relationship, which is started from adolescence, touches the highest pick in the age of 20 to 35 usually. If that particularly desirable relationship is socially sanctioned; it helps to built positive approach of life of two persons who love each other and want to get maturity of their love by the social recognition through marriage.

When both life partners’ expectations and preferences are synchronous, the satisfaction comes in married life.
After getting married by love-affair or by negotiation, it is often observed one or both the couple does not maintain an unselfish, faithful and caring approach to other.

Sometimes it seems a serious problem in marital relationship like:
Somebody creates unusual domination, which hurts self respect of the opposite one; makes partnership by untruthful means causes a trauma for partner who has been suffered; physical incapacity to make happy conjugal life, polygamy or debauchery habits; mistrustfulness; indifference to give security and support; or over all when there is a scarcity to understand each other in each and every aspects in conjugal life- causes hopelessness in married relationship.

The victim firstly tries to rule out the reason behind unnatural behavior, next finds the way out or tries to cope it up, but when he/she has to suffer monotonously in the same sort of situation without any solution for a long, inner spirit wants freedom but due to social non-acceptance in maximum cases he/she has to accept the unhealthy environment to live and has to pretend of leading a happy marital relationship. That’s why his/her inner spirit is deviated from healthy state, is failed to compensate any more.

b) Common disturbances coming from working field
If the potentiality of the person is higher and in comparison to that the quality of job he is doing is less valuable; if the earning is not satisfactory; working environment is not favorable; if the person has to go through various types of ill experiences in working field like deprivation, partiality, humiliation, badly accused (when he/she is not involved); after giving sincere labor credit goes to other; boss is short tempered, hard to pleases in nature or complex minded; colleagues are non co-operative or fault finder; in business recurrent failures leads hopelessness; creative persons when going through a sort of job where no scope of creativity or have not enough independency to do work in own way etc. are the common causes produce frustration and immense dissatisfaction in working field.

Career changing tendency:

    • When the person is nervous, there is a tendency to change often his/her occupation to get more satisfaction.
    • Who can fix their destiny, having self controlling power and risk taking tendencies; they can shift often for achieving the target in career.
    • Situational factors like dissatisfaction in present job, painful events in personal life (divorce, mal adjustment in family or the death of a loved one) may lead to shift life’s goal by changing the occupation.

Phases of middle adulthood:

  1. Generative
  2. Stagnation

The middle adulthood is the time to concentrate to fulfill the basic needs to maintain the familial status, concentration and care to family and children and performing job with much more responsibility in each and every sphere of various sectors of life. A new process of growth starts.

The person who have completed his/her early adulthood phase by close, stable and unselfish relationships or without facing much trouble; usually he/she is creative and is involved in preparing the next generation for life within the culture and they are generative and feel satisfaction in their career as well as in family life. But who have failed to be generative or productive in this way, undergoes through the stunting of personal growth or in The Stagnation in life.

When a person suffers in Mid-life Crisis, the whole life becomes miserable by negative emotion of unhappiness and sadness. He turns to be confused. His/her unhealthy situation comes to own self in the form of big question- “Why with me?”, “What to do now?”, “Where do I go from here?”, “Is it the fate for rest life?”, “How did I failed after giving honest effort?”.

These are the common pain, which breaks the healthy harmony and surely this is the time for a turn over or to need a change in life for those unlucky persons to avoid the suffocative situation.

The reactions of different temperaments in this phase:
The reaction is different according to the prevailing temperament of the person suffering in adulthood crisis.

People, who are having Sanguine temperament, want definitely a change over in career or try to find out a fresh familial relationship to live a healthy life. Naturally they can cope up the previous traumatic experience if the new one is better in quality. Some people of Sanguine group instead of divorce and remarriage maintain extramarital affair or concentrating in various enjoyable involvements becomes Playful, Euphoric and gives less importance to family.

In the same way Cholerics give much concentration in other sphere of life. Make own selves much more Workaholic and turn to Industrious with an Egotism or Superiority complex.

Some people like Phlegmatic and Melancholic temperaments mostly accept the odd situations of life and welcome a slow and steady decay of their health.

Melancholics are the extra ordinary sensitive and emotional people don’t want to hurt or to be hurt. They withdraw themselves silently from the factual World. They may divert their failure by concentrating own in religious or any other creative work, but due to continuous suppression of the inner feelings they may turned to Hypochondriac, Maniacal or Schizophrenic. 

Who are having Phlegmatic temperament can hardly accumulate enough strength to come out from their problematic environment. They are not at all courageous to face the new situation. They accept their hopeless condition and turn to Indifferent, non-reactive and usually are affected by various addictions to compensate the vacuum of life.

Within whom Nervous temperament prevail, due to the lack of decision making capacity they try to come out and get rid off their problems, want to breathe in a fresh air for a while but again return to known stuffy previous circumstances due to apprehension, confusion and guilty feeling . When long continued failure persists in familial or career sector, they loose their confidence, that’s why achieving afresh and stable change to them becomes impossible. Feels confused moves here and there to get satisfaction, turns to Paranoid personality or produces various nervous disorders like irritability, restlessness, tremor or hyperhydrosis, loquacious, hypochondriac etc. with various types of addictions.

Pathogenesis:
People who are affected by Adulthood Crisis and do not get satisfaction in real sense in furthermore but continuously trying to coping up his bad situation or suppressing the emotions; often outwardly their look is very healthy. They are continuously trying to compensate their life’s failures by growing their personality up in various ways; but the compelling ways to cope up the failures, cause deviation in mental and emotional states steadily. Thus by getting trauma, then forceful compensation, again failure-is collapsing the life animating spirit progressively- the disposition, behavior, attitude, self-esteem and even the liking-disliking in the physical level of the person alter and form a new layer.

Human emotion is connected with the activity and function of the body. All thoughts and sensations are transmitted to the consciousness over and through the cerebrospinal system, but emotions are conducted to the consciousness over the sympathetic nervous system and nature of the emotion determines what would be its effect to the human health- constructive or destructive. As positive emotions like love, faith, happiness, kindness, good will etc. are constructive and have a beneficial influence upon the harmonious functional activity of every cell, tissue and structure of the body; in the same manner negative emotions e.g. fear, worry, resentment, criticism, envy, anger, jealousy, hatred etc. are destructive and interfere with the normal functional activity and produce ill health and disease. 

[Although divorce leaves a scar as after effect in the life of an individual and children are mostly affected by this. But staying in the situation where parents are unhappy in their interpersonal relationship, there children suffer in a different way and often they are simply unattended.

When this child enters in the adulthood’s social or working sphere, in most cases they are not at all well adjusted. In severe cases there may be abrupt emotional deviation like frustration, self abuse by taking various measures of addiction to self destruction. There may be Schizophrenia like psychic disorders also. In these cases of adulthood crisis the responsibility goes to that unhealthy environment of childhood where the person has brought up.] 

By facing long continued uneven circumstances the ‘emotional climate’ or Temperament may be changed. So environmental factors can add or alter the temperament of the person. A jovial person with Sanguine temperament may turned to Melancholic or Melancholic may changed to Choleric for survive and adjust own. As an example, Phophorus personality by continuous humiliation may be turned to Natrum muriaticum and after continuous heartbreak that person may turned to Sepia. 

Although according to Dr. Kent’s view, Temperaments are not caused by proving, and are not changed in any manner by homoeopathic prescribing, it means Temperament can not be twisted by any how. But the temperament which is appeared in a man in his/her life time by layer formation due to receiving many buffets from life, that must be rectified by giving homeopathic medicine; which eradicates the forming layers as well as if there is any newly appeared temperament that should be rectified at the same time.  

Ultimate fate in matured or late adulthood:
If the person is untreated, the terminal part of life is miserable, he/she may be affected by mental abnormalities and immense aversion to life, with appearance of various bodily disorders.

Curing by Homoeopathy:
Continuous stress may be overcome in real aspect if there is any ideal substitution of the need or any hopeful achievement comes in life. Otherwise Layer construction affects the whole organism in Middle Adulthood and it may be corrected instantaneously by giving proper layer removing remedy according to presenting symptoms totality; along with counseling to the patient and other persons of family to enhance the confidence, vitality and desire to live a life happily and purposefully.

After clearing the layer the anti miasmatic treatment should be given in normal course, otherwise in the late phase of adulthood normal Psycho-Somatic controlling system may be broken and in favorable environment all the miasms may flares up due to incomplete treatment. Destruction may start in Physique, Emotion and Spirit if the suitable antimiasmatics are not administered sequentially according to the predominance of responsible miasm.

When the miasmatic states are cleared by treating the patient with antimiasmatic remedies thoroughly, the treatment should be concluded by giving a Constitutional remedy depending upon the innate constitution of the person. It minimizes the weakness of the person to be affected emotionally by future odd circumstances and for bringing out the best quality of the constitution and strengthening him/her vitality like “polishing the diamond.”

References:

  1. Introduction to Psychology, 7th Edition (chapter 12: development during adolescence, adulthood and old age;) by Morgan, King, Weisz and Schopler.
  2. The principles and art of cure; by homoeopathy by H.A.Roberts (chapter: Temperaments)
  3. Hahnemannian textbook of Classical Homoeopathy; by Luc De Schepper) 

Dr Kathika Chattopadhyay B.H.M.S.(Cal.Univ.), M.D.(Hom)
Faculty, Organon of Medicine
Bakson Homoeopathic Medical College & Hospital.,Greater Noida, U.P.
Email : kathikachatterjee@yahoo.co.in

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