Psychic points
Pierfrancesco Fusco*,
Carlo Di Stanislao**
Enrichetta Gallo*, Dennis Konopachi, Daniela Lorusso*
*Department of Anesthesia and Intensive Care, S. Salvatore Hospital of L’Aquila, Italy
** Department of Dermatology, S. Salvatore Hospital of L’Aquila, Italy
“Each depressed individual is a cosmically depressed; his depression is inborn, hormonal, chemical, or perhaps inherited; but surely for every depressed person there can be a thousand reasons to justify it.”
I. Nostromo
SUMMARY: The emotional causes represent a fundamental mainstay in the etiology of mental illnesses.
For the Chinese Medicine, it is impossible to think of the separation of the psyche from the somatic disturbances.
In light of what has been said, one cannot separate the symptoms of the patient from his emotional and nutritional state, which includes the patient’s life-style as well as his spiritual beliefs.
For the Chinese Medicine the emotional variations and frustrations can alter the emotions and the Shen, creating at first a sort of stasis, followed by a consumption of the nutritive energy (yong) and blood (Xue).
Even today in China, the psychiatrical forms are evaluated in light of the Zang fu.
Using the organ and viscera model does not always allow one to have a clear explanation for a given syndrome. For this reason many schools have preferred an approach, which had been developed by the French and the Italians. There are numerous points that are traditionally indicated as being efficacious in psychiatric disorders, whether they are primary or reactive.
KEY WORDS: Psychic points, psychiatric illnesses, emotions, shen
Introduction
The physician, and he who practices the medical arts as myself, frequently finds himself confronted with strange symptoms and pathologies that have to deal with psychic disturbances such as anxiety, depression etc., which are frequently not based on an organic nature. Modern western pharmacology has made available some molecules such as benzodiazepines, antidepressants and various other psychotropic drugs, which enables patients to better cope with their condition or state, without often obtaining a definitive recovery. The same is true for psychotherapy, where very often the patient develops a dependency on the psychologist in much the same way as happens with drug use, the phenomena of “drug dependency”.
Obviously it is not sufficient to activate or inhibit a receptor site to have control over a condition, or a situation that is almost always the result of an overlap of life style and “that which we are”.
Most of the patients that have had acupuncture, define it as a pleasurable experience or they refer to “sensations” that can range from an anxiety freeing to the development of a humeral tone that enables a true hypnotic effect.
In a recent study carried out by Vincent et al (1), on a group of 268 patients, it has been shown that 29.9% of the group, have sought acupuncture treatments for help with emotional problems.
In the last years the concept of illness has undergone radical changes. One speaks more frequently of the entire patient and the ties that exists between various psychological conditions and morbid states (2).
This inseparable bond has always existed in Chinese Medicine, which has a holistic approach, where it is impossible to think of the separation of the psyche from the somatic disturbances (2).
In light of what has been said, one cannot separate the symptoms of the patient from his emotional and nutritional state, which includes the patient’s life-style as well as his spiritual beliefs (3).
The emotional causes represent a fundamental mainstay in the etiology of mental illnesses (4, 5).
According to G. Andrès (6), the Chinese medicine considers mental disorders as being essentially a disturbance of the Shen. The “Spirit” that resides in the heart and in the blood, is the master of the beings, the great director of the orchestra and it is that which ties man to his principles.
The ancient Chinese scholars had organized the human psychiatry into the “5 psycho visceral entities otherwise known as the 5 souls or Ben Shen”, which come from the 5 Zang Organs. Thoughts and human emotions are derived from the physiological activity of the Wu Zang, the five Organs, which in turn make use of Blood (Xue), Energy Qi and the fluids Jin Ye (phenotypic neuroendocrinal energy) in their functioning and reciprocal transmutations. The traditional nosography differentiates psychiatric disturbances into various syndrome categories. It is held that emotional variations and frustrations can alter the emotions and the Shen, creating at first a sort of stasis (of Qi. Blood, food, humidity, catarrh and fire) followed by a consumption of the nutritive energy (yong) and blood (Xue) (7, 8).
Even today in China, the psychiatrical forms are evaluated in light of the Zang fu and are differentiated into one of the various syndromes that can be divided into (9, 10):
o Yu zheng (anxiety- depressive syndrome)
o Yi Bing (hysteria)
o Zang Zao (agitation, mania, hypochondria)
Using the organ and viscera model does not always allow one to have a clear explanation for a given syndrome. For this reason many schools have preferred an approach, which had been developed by the French and the Italians (11). This approach was initially described by Leissen (12) and Kespi (12) in the 70’s and 80’s. There are numerous points that are traditionally indicated as being efficacious in psychiatric disorders, whether they are primary or reactive (14-15).
Mu Points (16)
These are points that have a significant psychic impact. They are to be used for various acute psychic responses to stress. They are also useful in the reactive anxiety-depressive disorders, wherein there is a similar reaction to various stressful stimuli.
Their use is indicated for those problems that have a structural, repetitive, seasonal and acute characteristics and less so for those that are constant in time and tend to have a protracted course (17).
The important characteristics of each point are:
· ST 25 (Tian Shu): irritability, disturbances that worsen during rest and the weekend
· LU 1 (Zhong Fu): sadness, depression, fear of the future, awakening at 3-5AM, nocturia
· CV 3 (Zhong Ji): tendency to be superficial and live for the day, sensitive to coldness, tenacious insomnia
· GB 25 (Jing Men): morning weakness, lack of energy
· GB 24 (Ri Yue): extreme cyclothymiacs, (alternating euphoria with depression)
· GB 23 (Zhe Jin): tension that passes to the muscles
· LR 13 (Zhang Men): deep tension, visceral, insomnia, dyspepsia, anguish, sadness
· CV 14 (Ju Que): anguish, discomfort at the solar plexus, extreme cold, moments of great depression
· CV 12 (Zhong Wan): heartburn, hypersomnia, cold and sweaty extremities
Shen Points
The shen is the “orchestra director” that controls all the various organic functions. It is that entity which is responsible for organizing and coordinating the functions so that they all work in harmony. These points are indicated in all psychiatric illnesses in which one has a clear sensation of having lost control over one or more of the organic functions. For which not withstanding the awareness of their own symptoms and discomfort the patient refers a total loss of control of himself and their entire life. The eyes appear to be “turned off” (they lack life) just as the three lights in the ideogram are “shut off” (17):
· HT 7 (Shen Men): psychic disturbances of external origin, reactive anxiety. The patient feels to be the victim of anxiety and can’t control himself
· BL 44 (Shen Tang): abnormal function of the heart as a thoracic regulator (cough, asthma, tachycardia)
· CV 15 (Shen Fu, secondary name): disturbance of all systems involving relationships, shyness, disturbances of the vision, olfactory, etc., often disturbances with sexual relations
· GV 25 (Shen Ting): obsessive thoughts, coherence disturbances, lunacy
· GB 13 (Ben Shen): perhaps deals with control of the superior cinnabar: deep depression with loss of the vital instinct
· CV 14 (Shen Mu, secondary name): loss of desire to relate with others
· KI 25 (Shen Cang): free the heat of the thorax, free the catarrh (acts on the thin tan)
· CV 8 (Shen Que): deep depression, thinks of suicide, loss of the desire to live
· GV 11 (Shen Dao): acute crisis of lunacy, suicidal mania
· GB 23/24 (Shen Guang, secondary name): tension. irritability, sudden changes in humor
· KI 23 (Shen Feng): controls the heart organ, tachycardia, pseudo-angina, cardiac neurosis
Ling Points
The ideogram Ling (R.3117) translates “wonderful spirit”, “man’s spiritual walk”
According to Zanfo it corresponds to the soul, the part hetaera and tenuous of the living being (19). Points with this name are used when the patient feels like he/she is blocked in their growth and their development (20,21).
The Ling and the Yin of the Shen, is the sensation to do something that you like and is similar to you. If there is no gratification we become blocked in our development.
We create our Ling during the first four years of our life. It is our impression on our Shen. The Ling is a link to joy, it makes us live in harmony with the world and ourselves (the ancient pictogram of Ling is a smile) (22).
Beginning from the fetus, man in the course of his own existence is exposed to a growth not only psycho-physical but also spiritual. The Ling points come into play precisely in this development or spiritual growth beginning in the lower cinnabar (the pelvic region which is the part most yin of the organism) to subsequently reach the superior cinnabar:
· HT 2 (Quing Ling o Qing Ling Quan): the little ocean, deals with puberty (a secondary name is green spirit), the maturation, the passage into the adult age. Being that Quing Ling is also the secondary name for TB 11 it is felt that this point could have a synergic effect with this point. In fact these two points are essential for the treatment of identity crisis during puberty.
· HT 4 (Ling Dao): when one’s development is blocked by an external factor during the adult period, sensed as insurmountable.
· GV 10 (Ling Tai): the terrace of the spirit: it is the point of the overall growth that one must initially overcome ones dependence from others, in that way, becomes responsible and capable of taking care of oneself (GV 9). Having the clearness of oneself, allows one to know who one is (GV 10). This is the point that allows us to recall the reason we have come into this world (they say that great warriors had this point exposed so as to allow them to see their enemies without having to turn around) (23). The next point GV 11 (the point of insanity with mania suicide) allows one to know the direction one must take in their life. This point makes us aware allowing us to give a definition to our existence. GV 15 “the door of silence” is the point of the identity. You use this point in cases of calm lunacy and in all those cases in which we can’t recognize ourselves in that which we do and therefore do not appreciate the consequences caused (19, 22).
· GB 18 (Cheng Ling): reaching the level of consciousness and the full spirituality. Probably concentrates in the individual the functions that coordinate the overcoming of conflicts allowing one to reach the awareness and peace.
· KI 24 (Ling Xu): when one is divided between two desires, anxiety and suspicion.
Kong Points
In the ideogram for Kong there is expressed the concept of emptiness. The emptiness that one experiences when a man lies on a field, looking at the sky and listening to the absolute interior silence thereby canceling all those ideas that come to mind when he is overloaded from too many to do and is confused. It is that vacuum that Platone had described, which allows one look within oneself to overcome the confusion of the world.
These points, that contain this ideogram are those which are able to restablish order harmony and serenity in an individual that even though he knows who he is and where he is going, he becomes disoriented and confused by vast amount of information and requests that come from the world (15).
This inner silence can be created by emptying the eyes (TB23) and the ears that communicate with the endocranium through GB 19 (empty brain). The ancestral and parental errors, that are derived from our parents have to be emptied through KI 11 and BL 32 “empty marrow”.
The marrow represents the container of the Jing of our parents.
In order to obtain a total emptiness it is necessary to empty the heart through GV 7 that allows us to reset all the emotions.
Other points that contain such an ideogram are: BL 1 (Lei Kong is a secondary name), GV 2 (Sui Kong is a secondary name), BL 33 (Zhong Kong is a secondary name).
Ming Points
In the ideogram ming, there is the concept of death. Ming means light and it is a virtue of the shen, it is destiny. If one does not believe in his destiny, he lives but actually he is dead because Ming is the existence more than the goal, an ideal.
The heart knows that what it wants of us, who had created us, therefore “knows everything”. In the morning the Heart sends orders to the Lung, that is the prime minister, precise and orderly. From the Lung the breath passes to the meridians and the Kidney because it is necessary to know if we have the force to realize the plans of the Heart.
The point that allows us to receive this message, localized in the talons, and permits us to rise to our feet is KI 6 (22).
It is not sufficient to have the force (strength) but it is necessary to choose the direction GB 37. Besides a direction one must rotate and direct the body and the thorax GB 24.
At the end, all the messages from the periphery have to return to the Heart, that has to be informed as to where we are moving ST 23.
Therefore the Lung accepting and submitting to the rules of the Heart, renders it easy and encased in joy. A joyous Heart is a heart free from any bonds or ties (in the ideogram xin is pictured a heart that has broken its own bonds). It is necessary to understand, in the future, what points of the Lung and the Minister of the Heart enables us to free the heart from its ties (22).
Other Ming points include:
· All the points of yangming that go from ST25 to ST30 (persons that in the morning don’t know what to do with their lives)
· LU 1, BL 66
The symptomatology in the case of dysfunction of the Ming points will be characterized by sadness, disorganization, the sensation to do the things automatically without joy. In addition the Ming points are very useful under a psychological profile in many cases of sadness due to boredom or the familial or professional unrealization (failures).
The regulatory Door (porte) points
All that has to do with the evolutionary passages during life has to do with the Guan points. Life is a continual growth process, that at any moment can be blocked or deviated. To grow means to cross and overcome obstacles. It if for this reason that these points are positioned primarily with the big articulations, that from a symbolical point of view represents the obstacles and the doorways that must be passed thru (24).
Starting with the birth process the first obstacle we are faced with is coming out from the uterus (BL 61 the heel doorway). This passage could not be readily accepted and in that case the individual will have difficulty during his/her lifetime to become detached from the mother (will not cut themselves from their umbilical chord). This point is treated preferably with Moxa.
The successive step passes through GB 29 (the doorway of the hips) and is treated with Moxa. This point deals with the Peter Pan Syndrome, that is the refusal to grow up, wanting to remain babies, and not willing to pass into the world of adults (22).
All the door points are touched by curious meridians, Yin Qaio and Yang Wei Mai, for control of the growth in time and space. For this reason some schools advise to treat contemporarily the door point associated with these meridians, while others do not advise this sort of treatment because it could slow down the functionality of the door points.
Once reaching the world of the adults, the next passage is to the phase of responsibility, through SI 10 (the doorway of the shoulder). Often we will find ourselves faced with an individual that accepts his/her anagraphic age, that is to be an adult, but they can’t accept responsibility due to the failure to overcome delusions “false Hercules syndrome”. This syndrome is frequently associated with lumbar pains.
The next point is GV 15 (the doorway to the voice or mutism) it deals with depressed individuals that have little desire to speak and have loss of their own identity (22).
The next passage way occurs thru CV 23 (the doorway to the tonsils or throat). This point allows us to leave something in order to have access to something different “to access the heavens”, if we do not learn to let go there will be no growth. This point is touched by Chong Mai that is the meridian of the transformations, and by Yin Wei Mai that passes thru the 7 orifices of the heart, where the number 7 indicates an exact awareness of oneself. Jeffery Yuen says that in order to access the CV 23 it is necessary to have good awareness of oneself in order to be able to let go. To leave or let go means to sacrifice, in this case CV 23, is the point of the sacrifices, as are all the points of the neck that indicate in addition to sacrifice, the sensuality and intimacy.
Speaking of the points of the neck, next to CV 23 is located ST 9 “human acceptance”. ST 9 is the ability to accept others thru sacrifice (women that have recurrent vaginitis because they do not wish to accept the other).
Next to ST 9 is LI 18, which means “ the help to leave the energy of the chest”. This point represents the decision on which things you can leave (ex. Is the failure to externalize ones sensuality or virility in the presence of a man or woman can show as the inability to have an orgasm).
Behind this point is found a point that belongs to the group of points known as “windows to the heavens”, TB 16. This point represents the entrance of the heavenly yang, which moves the earthly yin. It is the point, that has the ability to know how to accept the heavens, to accept others and to leave something of oneself. It is the point of those depressed individuals that not knowing where to go they close their head, retreating into oneself. They isolate themselves from the heavens and await death (22).
Gui points (The Thirteen Demons)
The ideogram “Gui” (ancient text of “etymological lessons” Shou Wen II D.C.) is made up of a head and two legs and indicates “the ghosts, phantoms, demons, the lower spirits” (25). Weigert in lesson 406 reminds us that the Gui points attacks reason (the head) with sudden symptoms (the legs) (25).
Even if they are called the demons, (So Wen 11 and 14, Lingshu 58 and Laozi in chap, 50 of Dao de Jing, states that they accompany us in life and death. Leung and Lavier (34) state that the Gui Points were once considered to be 25 in number and that 12 of these had been lost in time. Thanks to Sun Simiao, the remaining 13 points have been transmitted to us. These points should be considered in illnesses with hallucinations or delirium derived from the dissociation between the Hun and the Po, which can cause a blockage and obstacles to the free circulation of energy (22).
In Liezi’s “classic of perfect emptiness” there are described three different categories of “spirits”:
·
Shen that
come from the heavens
·
Qi that
come from the earth
·
Gui that
come from the deceased
The Gui corresponds to the “demons” (gdon) of the tibetian religious-mystic traditions create obstacles and obstructions (genks in Sanskrit) producing anxiety and hallucinations. According to the indications of Sun Simiao the main uses of the Gui can be shown as follows:
1. LU 11: Gui Xin secondary name; hallucinations and preauricular pain.
2. LI 11: Gui Chen secondary name; loss of memory urticaria, itching and desquamation of the skin. Sedative action (yang insanity / lunacy and extreme agitation of the type zao zang).
3. PC 7: Gui Xin third name (as in LU11); vomiting and expectoration of blood, heat at the palms of the hands, attacks of sudden energy with the alternating sensations of heat and cold
4. PC 8: Gui Ying (the third name present in Zhen Ju Jia Yi Jing and not used by Sun Simiao) and Gui Ku (used by Da Cheng); heat type of hemorrhoids and intestinal spasms. Women with sadness and pain in the heart.
5. BL 62: Gui Lu third name; pain at the angle of the eye, difficulty to urinate, lumbar pain with flexion and extension. It is currently used in china for violent fronto-parietal-nuchal headaches, vertigo, lipotemia, schizophrenia, lumbago, malleolar pain. This point has a strong psychic impact (according Tai Yi Shen Zhen) that enlivens the blood and qi (especially in women) and calms the Heart.
6. GV 16: Gui Zhen / Gui Xue third and fourth names respectively; the 100 illnesses of the head, relaxation of the tongue and mutism, jaundice.
7. GV 23: Gui Tang third name; nasal polyps, red and swollen face, epilepsy and dementia.
8. GV 26: the term Gui appears in the various secondary names (Gui Ke Ting, Gui Gong, Gui Shi); logorrhea and loss of consciousness, yin insanity (dian) calms the Shen and combats the countercurrent (ni). Active in the dermatitis with swelling of the face, better with Moxa.
9. SP 1: Gui Le secondary name; chest pain, coldness and abdominal swelling with dyspepsia, heat at the head with epistasis, alternating cold and heat at the legs.
10. ST 6: Gui Chung the fourth and last name; described by Ling Shu in the chapter on Jingmai. It is indicated in cases of sudden deviation of the mouth, sensitive to cold wind and the impossibility to walk.
11. CV 1: Gui Cang ninth and last name of the point (active only in men); depression and loss of consciousness, coldness at the extremity of the shaft with reflux towards the heart.
12. CV 24: Gui Shi the fourth and last name
13. PC 11bis 106: Yu Men Tou at the sides of the clitoris.
14. PC 42: called Hai Quan (in Sowen and in Zhen Jiu Da Quan). According to Sun Simiao it is the 13th Gui point placed on the frenulum of the tongue; swollen and edematous tongue with difficulty to speak, polydipsia.
Sun Simiao states that the “13 demons” should be treated in a successive manner with the technique of the “flying needle”, other authors advise the use of these point in a differentiated manner evaluating each case individually. Kespì is the only authority that has established a formula that is relatively simple for the use with these points. His treatment makes use of the triad “heaven-man-earth” (25, 26).
Our school prefers, instead, to treat the obsessive – phobic compulsive neurosis basing the treatment on the constitution of the patient (25), rather than specific symptoms (which is difficult to remember).
· Water: BL 62 - You Men Tou
· Fire: PC 6 / 7 (PC 5 – SI 3)
· Wood: GV 1 – 16 – 23 – 26
· Metal: LU 11 – LI 11
· Earth: SP 1 – ST 6
Many authors take into consideration such points in obsessive neurosis with alterations of perception, in the phobic – delirious forms of anxiety, even if the results and the treatments are reported in a very conflicting way (22, 25, 26).
There are other very ancient interpretations both in Su Wen and in Ling Shu but they have been abandoned in the course of time. These interpretations are based on the meridian tracts (or chirographics) and these suggest, to treat the Shou Tae Yang, Shou e Zu Jue Yin. The common characteristics are that these resonances have more Blood than Energy and therefore are active on the Shen.
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