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Are the Miasms Evolving?

Reimagining Psora, Sycosis, and Syphilis in the Age of Social Media and Climate Collapse

Picture of Kate Howard RSHom

Kate Howard RSHom

Homeopath and CHE Community Manager

As homeopaths, we are trained to see beyond symptoms; to search for patterns, roots, and resonances that hint at deeper layers of imbalance. One of the most important maps we use is the miasmatic model: Psora, Sycosis, and Syphilis, the original triad described by Hahnemann, later expanded by thinkers like J.H. Allen and Rajan Sankaran to include Tubercular, Cancer, and even AIDS miasms.

But as we navigate a world marked by ecological uncertainty and unprecedented psychological pressures, many of us are asking:
Are the miasms evolving with us? Or are we simply seeing them more clearly in new forms?

In this blog, we take a deep dive into how classical miasms may be manifesting in the collective psyche of the modern age; and why understanding their evolving expressions is essential for contemporary practice.

Psora: The Miasm of Insecurity in the Age of Overwhelm

Traditionally seen as the mother of all chronic disease, Psora is rooted in lack, struggle, and existential discomfort. It is the itch that cannot be scratched, the longing for something just out of reach.

In today’s world, Psora is alive and well, but it has taken on new disguises:

  • Information overload that leaves people scattered, distracted, and perpetually unfulfilled.
  • The rise of anxiety disorders driven by uncertainty, scarcity thinking, and survival fears.
  • Perfectionism masked as productivity, often fuelled by social comparison and the pressure to be constantly optimising, improving, and “healing”.
  • Moral exhaustion in the face of injustice, inequality, and systemic failure, wanting to help but feeling powerless.
  • And perhaps most strikingly, a culture of chronic self-help consumption, particularly online.
 

Nowhere is this more obvious than on social media, where millions of people are following wellness influencers, trying endless protocols, supplements, cleanses, and spiritual hacks in a bid to finally feel better. The Psoric drive here is subtle but insistent: “If I can just fix this one thing, I’ll be okay.”

Clients in the Psoric state are often doing everything “right”; eating clean, exercising, meditating, journaling, taking dozens of supplements, and yet still feel lost, fatigued, and fundamentally unwell. There’s a sense that no amount of effort results in lasting change. Many are caught in cycles of chasing the next best thing, heavily influenced by curated lives and health journeys online that promise transformation but rarely deliver grounded results.

This ‘Instagram Psora’ is a new version of the old itch: a constant reaching for improvement without resolution. The fear beneath it is often primal; what if I stop trying, and everything falls apart?

As homeopaths, we need to recognise when clients are not just presenting symptoms, but embodying a cultural miasm, one that rewards striving, but rarely supports true rest, integration, or enough-ness.

Sycosis: The Miasm of Excess in the Age of Consumption

Sycosis, the miasm of excess, distortion, and suppression, thrives in environments where more is never enough. It reflects not only accumulation on the physical level (warts, growths, swellings, congestion), but also on the emotional and societal planes; overload, overcompensation, and overprotection.

In the modern landscape, Sycosis shows up through:

  • Addictive behaviours, especially around tech: compulsive scrolling, binge-watching, gaming, shopping, social media loops.
  • Cosmetic enhancement culture: the explosion of Botox, fillers, surgical tweaks, and image filters designed to perfect the outside while concealing the deeper insecurity within.
  • Body dysmorphia and aesthetic obsession fueled by curated digital ideals and influencer beauty standards.
  • Overdiagnosis and overmedication, particularly in mental health, where symptoms are pathologised and suppressed without exploring root causes.
  • Cancel culture and online shaming, where fear of exposure leads to hyper-curation, defensiveness, and moral performance.
  • Eco-anxiety wrapped in denial, where one acknowledges planetary crisis while continuing to consume at unsustainable levels.
 

Where Psora reaches and yearns, Sycosis hoards and hides. But today, that hiding often comes in the form of display. This is the era of curated excess, where perfection is polished, photographed, and posted daily.

The proliferation of cosmetic procedures, especially among younger generations, mirrors the Syphilitic fear of decay, but expresses it sycotically: not through destruction, but through manipulation and distortion of form. Lips are inflated, brows frozen, skin smoothed, all in the pursuit of a hyper-real version of self that feels safer to show than the authentic, ageing, asymmetrical reality underneath.

Even transparency has become performative; what we might call “confessional culture”. People are sharing their trauma online, opening up about mental health, body image, or self-loathing, yet often it remains curated, monetised, and unintegrated. The shame isn’t resolved; it’s rebranded.

Sycosis asks:
What am I trying to control, contain, or compensate for?
What happens if I stop managing the image and sit with the truth?

As homeopaths, recognising the Sycotic pattern means seeing behind the shimmer. These clients might seem polished, composed, and self-aware; but beneath the surface, the organism is congested, overburdened, and aching for true release.

Syphilis: The Miasm of Destruction in the Age of Collapse

The most destructive of the three primary miasms, Syphilis carries the energy of despair, fragmentation, and systemic breakdown. Where Psora struggles and Sycosis overcompensates, Syphilis gives up, or actively tears down. It’s the miasm of auto-destruction where the body, mind, or culture begins to turn against itself.

In today’s world, Syphilitic patterns are emerging not just in pathology but in our collective psychology and social fabric.

Signs of Syphilitic energy in our time:

  • Mass burnout: Especially among caregivers, educators, therapists, and activists, who pour energy into broken systems until they collapse from exhaustion. This isn’t just tiredness; it’s soul-deep depletion, where meaning and motivation begin to erode.
  • Chronic disconnection: Where people feel disembodied, emotionally numb, or spiritually estranged, unable to locate a sense of belonging in their communities, families, or even their own bodies.
  • Alienation in young people, especially adolescents and young adults who feel like the world has no place for them. This shows up in rising levels of self-harm, suicidality, gender dysphoria, existential depression, and a growing trend of disengagement from conventional life paths.
  • Conspiracy culture and institutional distrust: Paranoia, suspicion, and nihilism are often Syphilitic responses to chronic disempowerment. The mind fragments, trying to piece together a reality that feels increasingly hostile and meaningless.
  • Climate grief and ecological collapse: The awareness of planetary degradation can feel so overwhelming that it leads to emotional shutdown. This is the dread that isn’t always expressed, but lives under the surface: “What’s the point?” or “It’s already too late”.

Burnout as a Symptom of Syphilitic Collapse

Burnout is often misclassified as a modern inconvenience, but in the Syphilitic context, it’s a systemic cry for help. It says:
“I have been pushing so long, under such pressure, in a system so hostile, that I can no longer sustain the illusion that this is sustainable.”

Syphilitic burnout doesn’t just tire the body, it fractures meaning, erodes willpower, and leads to a kind of psychic erosion. People describe feeling like they’re “going through the motions,” “a ghost of themselves,” or “completely detached from who they used to be.” This is the collapse of coherence, the unraveling of the self.

The Syphilitic Response: Giving Up or Burning Down?

Where Psoric individuals fight to heal and Sycotic ones try to manage or disguise the pain, Syphilitic states may stop trying altogether; or they may lash out, destroy what’s left, or retreat into numbness.

 

It may look like:

  • Radical detachment or isolation.
  • Acts of self-sabotage or self-harm.
  • Emotional or creative deadness.
  • Choosing annihilation (literal or symbolic) over slow suffering.
 

Even within spiritual communities or wellness spaces, Syphilitic themes can manifest as spiritual nihilism; a sense that no path is valid, no teacher can be trusted, and no transformation is real.

Are the Miasms Mutating or Are We Seeing More Clearly?

What’s becoming increasingly clear is that miasmatic theory isn’t outdated, it’s archetypal. These energetic patterns don’t belong to specific diseases; they describe how human beings cope with suffering, limitation, and survival.

And as our world becomes more complex, the ways we express and suppress that suffering become more complex too. In this light, it’s not that miasms are changing, but that we are being invited to meet them with greater psychological depth, cultural awareness, and systemic insight.

So What Does This Mean for Practice?

  • Understanding the evolving face of miasms can help us:
  • Recognise deeper patterns behind presenting complaints that don’t fit clean rubrics.
  • Hold space for clients’ existential struggles without pathologising them.
  • Bring nuance to remedy selection, especially in layered cases with trauma, identity issues, or spiritual crisis.
  • Stay grounded as practitioners in a world that is also impacting us miasmatically.
  • When a client speaks about feeling “invisible,” “trapped in comparison,” “afraid the world is ending,” or “unable to feel anything anymore,” these aren’t just metaphors. They are invitations to see the miasm at play; not just as pathology, but as a distorted survival strategy in a world that often feels overwhelming.

Final Reflections

The miasms were never just about disease; they were always about the human condition. If we treat them as static historical concepts, we miss their power. But if we see them as evolving blueprints for how we suffer, and potentially how we heal, then we can begin to work with them more creatively and compassionately.

So the question remains:
How are you witnessing the miasms show up in your clinic today?
Let’s continue the conversation in supervision, in study, and in community. The more we explore these patterns together, the more we can support our clients in not just coping, but transforming.

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Disclaimer

The content shared here is intended for informational purposes only and should not be considered a replacement for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment from a qualified and licensed healthcare provider. The views and opinions expressed in this presentation are those of the presenter and do not necessarily represent those of CHE or any affiliated organizations.

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