The image of drowning stayed with me last night. It seems entirely consistently that both your mother and father were unable to manage the unconscious forces that were controling them when you were born. Unable to consttruct enough ego strength to offset the power of these forces they spilled them out onto you. Just as Rapunzel's parents abandoned them to the enchantress so did your parents abandon you to face these unconscious waters alone. You relied on wits and a rich fantasy world to navigate through but there was much that was stored away behind a plaster wall encapsulating a deep shame. It seems to me a perfect image of your father submerging you under water as he himself could not swim, that is , swim in unconscious waters. He himself was drowning so he was symbolically taking you with. Much the same as your mother who asked you quite literally to be her husband because her real husband was not able to address her needs. She may as well have been along side your father holding you under water and laughing. But remember what Hillman says, "our wounds become your parents."
An afterthought. Your father is obsessed with his pool. There is something about the pool, the water that attracts him.
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I realize that before one can solve a problem, one must accurately assess it. That said, two people treading water and slowly drowning while trying to care for an infant sounds like quite a problem indeed.
ReplyDeleteThe pool obsession is quite interesting. The incident I remember happened in a nearly identical pool which similarly dwarfed a smallish backyard in the same neighborhood. Perhaps a plunge is about to take place, however shallow the waters.