5

HEMATOLOGY

In order to meet the body’s needs of food and oxygen, and in order to eliminate waste and manufactured by-products, our cells require continual irrigation from the flow of blood. In fact, all the elements that are necessary for life are exchanged through the blood.

The following blood cells are found within the liquid blood plasma:

• Red blood cells transport oxygen and carbon dioxide
• White blood cells seek out foreign matter
• Platelets coagulate the blood to avoid its loss through hemorrhaging

Running parallel to the circulation of blood is the circulation of lymph, through the lymph vessels and lymph nodes. Lymph carries certain proteins and fats collected from the digestive system. One of its essential roles as part of the immune system is to distinguish what is “me” from what is not me, so that any undesirable foreign body is eliminated.

BLOOD

The following information relates specifically to blood production, which takes place in the bone marrow.

Figure 5.1. The elements of blood

The Felt Sense of the Biological Conflict

Problems related to blood production are associated with a total and absolute reduction in self-esteem in which one feels that life no longer has meaning. The whole body is affected—all the white blood cells, the red blood cells, and the platelets.

In the case of a localized feeling of low self-esteem (feeling oneself to be a bad spouse, incompetent in sports, etc.), there won’t be serious blood ailments. Base cells in the skeleton will continue the production of blood. But with a total, absolute reduction of self-esteem, disorders of blood production are likely to manifest.

Blood problems often afflict children, who especially need support—from the skeleton, attentive parents, supportive teachers, etc. When analyzing blood disorders, it is important to first of all identify when the related emotional shock occurred; the nature of the conflict, as well as its duration and intensity, are vital details. Has there been a complete resolution of the conflict? Gather all the psychological, mental, and organic data that are relevant to the genesis and evolution of the event and the illness. Constantly monitor the psychological, mental, and organic progress and always treat in relation to and in collaboration with trained medical professionals.

For information specific to the platelets of the blood, see the Spleen section at the end of this chapter.

Specific Disorders of the Blood

• Acute lymphocytic leukemia: This type of leukemia most often affects children and it corresponds with a complete loss of self-esteem. It relates to being forbidden to grow up or sensing a danger in growing up.
• Anemia is a deficiency of oxygen in the blood. This is related to a loss of what makes us feel alive, what sustains us.
• Hypercalcaemia appears when our hard-and-fast “values” become fluid, soft, unstable, no longer fixed.
• Hypersideremia (high iron levels): Increased iron in the blood can be due either to a loss of self-esteem because of an unrealized or unexpressed potential or to a conflict of lack. In either case, the liver’s ability to signal “too much iron” is compromised, and the level of iron continues to increase.
• Monocytic leukemia: This is a type of myeloid leukemia characterized by a dominance of monocytes in the bone marrow. This condition is related to the memory between the brain and the tissues and a diminution in the immune system. Individuals with monocytic leukemia have conflicts related to their own self-defense. They may be attacked, particularly by the family, and say or do nothing.
• Petechiae, purpura: Small red dots from broken blood vessels appear on the skin when conflicts of separation are coupled with a reduction of self-worth (especially feeling unsuited for battle).
• Plasmocytosis can occur in conflicts of having to be the strongest, the only master on board. Or there may be a reduction of self-worth in a conflict of separation.
• Polycythemia: In this condition, there is an increase in the number of red blood cells in the body. This is related to a fear of dying from blood ties—for instance, if you had a grandmother who died from a hemorrhage. The associated conflict may also be a direct fear of having a lack of red blood cells.

Example:

I met with a young girl whose parents divorced before her birth. The father regularly picked up the older brother for visits but never her. Three years went by and then he seemingly remembered that he had a daughter. For the first time he took her home with him. A few days later, she experienced intense fatigue and night sweats and was ultimately diagnosed with leukemia.

Neuronal connection: Brain marrow

Embryologic origin: New mesoderm

LYMPH

Lymph vessels are thin channels that carry lymph around the body. Lymph nodes are small, rounded or bean-shaped masses of lymphatic tissue where several lymph vessels connect. Lymph nodes filter the lymphatic fluid and are critical for the body’s immune response. During a physical examination, doctors often look for swollen lymph nodes on the neck, around the collarbone, and in the armpit and groin.

The Felt Sense of the Biological Conflict

Problems with the lymph nodes and vessels are related to deep anguish and a loss of self-esteem. There is an associated fear of the future, of things foreign, of what is not “I.” Biologically, when we feel attacked or threatened in some way, we want to defend ourselves and we look for protection. We scour the lymphatic network, increasing the flow and the maturing of the lymphocytes and monocytes, which are our defense system. This is the body sorting out what is not “I.”

The physical location where the illness manifests relates to the nature of the underlying conflict. The nodes under the arms are often additions to the original conflict—a secondary conflict of anguish and low self-esteem. These nodes swell up during the healing phase. For a right-handed person, problems with nodes in the left armpit relate to feelings of being a bad parent. This is sometimes accompanied by a decalcification of the humerus. Symptoms in the nodes of the right armpit often occur when a right-handed person feels that he or she is a bad partner. These associations are reversed in left-handed people.

Examples:

A doctor carried out an in-depth examination on a worried patient without saying a word. The patient felt such anxiety for the inguinal region that she later manifested inflammation in a lymph node in her groin.

Mr. G had erection difficulties. He met a woman who made fun of him and he experienced great anguish and loss of self-esteem in the sexual domain. He developed large nodes in the inguinal and pelvic region after meeting a woman who was understanding of his condition.

Neuronal connection: Brain marrow (toward its exterior)

Embryologic origin: New mesoderm

Lymph Nodes of the Head and Neck

The following material relates specifically to lymphatic circulation in the upper body—the head, the mediastinum in the thoracic cavity, and the posterior part of the neck—originating in the branchial arches. The ducts go from the ears toward the neck and skirt the esophagus, then their liquid contents flow into the stomach. Repeated hiatal hernias can injure the upper-body nodes.

The Felt Sense of the Biological Conflict

Problems in the upper-body nodes can relate to male frontal fear in which the reaction is to attack when threatened. Upper-body-node problems are also related to a fear of illness and all that it entails: hospitals, treatment, and prognosis. There may be a particular fear of a diagnosis of cancer. Individuals may have great difficulty in confronting danger, putting themselves in front of it. There is an associated sense of feeling thrown, of not being able to count on your physical body or emotional state; of feeling that either could abandon you at any moment. For left-handed people in particular, there is a conflict of feeling powerless in the face of an emergency, of feeling that they don’t have the right to defend themselves.

Examples:

A man who consulted me about problems with his upper-body nodes described his child having an accident right in front of him. He could see the danger in front of him but was powerless to stop it.

Mr. B was in good health when one day he experienced severe vertigo for several hours. He underwent the shock of the fear of a serious illness—a conflict that he slowly resolved, little by little. About a month later, however, the same vertigo began again and this time was even stronger. Again, Mr. B experienced great fear of a serious illness. His doctor calmed him a little and with time he constructed a solution. Shortly after, a nodule appeared on his neck.

Neuronal connection: Right frontal cortex

Embryologic origin: Ectoderm

SPLEEN

The spleen is a fist-sized organ located in the upper left part of the abdomen, between the stomach and the diaphragm. The largest lymphatic organ in the body, the spleen helps control the amount of blood in the body and destroys old and damaged blood cells. People can live without a spleen; however, its absence impairs the body’s ability to fight certain infections. One of the spleen’s more minor functions is to store platelets. The following discussion of the spleen also relates to blood platelets.

The Felt Sense of the Biological Conflict

Problems with the spleen relate to conflicts linked to the blood—intense fear of losing blood or intense fear during a transfusion. Blood transfusions can provoke a shock because our minds cannot make a distinction between transfusion and bleeding. There is a risk of a vicious circle: the hemorrhage creates a shock of fear linked to the blood; this stress causes the number of platelets to drop, which induces a hemorrhage.

In nature, an animal’s wound is equivalent to a loss of self-esteem. Problems with the spleen relate to these conflicts of wounding—feelings of not being up to a battle because of a large, bleeding wound or of any kind of ineptitude related to the blood. The spleen is associated with humiliation and feelings of inadequacy—feeling unable to fight due to a lack of blood or vitality. The spleen enlarges (splenomegaly) in order to become a reservoir of blood: “I’m in danger of being short of blood, so I build a reserve, just in case.”

Whereas the spleen can reflect conflicts of lowered self-esteem linked to the blood, platelets are associated with the desire to be pleasing. An increase in platelets relates to a conflict of joining—for instance, feeling misplaced in a family situation. Idiopathic thrombocytopenic purpura (ITP) is a systemic condition characterized by a low platelet count. It relates to illness of the bloodline, perhaps having no line of descent.

Examples:

I have seen individuals with spleen problems who experienced the following conflicts:

Feelings of not having good blood

Panic after spitting blood

Having a hand mangled by a machine and being haunted by the vision of blood everywhere

Fear of being short of blood

Shock during a straightforward blood-testing exercise, such as a cholesterol test

Neuronal connection: Brain marrow, on the right parietal side

Embryologic origin: New mesoderm