“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

I would add one brief note for Ruburt’s edification. Surely he must be aware that his mother’s characteristic pose in bed was one that necessitated a complete turning of the upper body, whenever she wished to look one way or the other; and that her neck, because of her arthritis, could not turn normally.

Psychologically you will find this principle quite sound; symbolically, the fearful attempt to become part of the feared individual, and therefore escape the venom that might be directed outward. These feelings were rearoused by Ruburt’s reading of the book, where childbirth was depicted as causing the mother great agony.

Since Ruburt’s mother had often spoken most vehemently of Ruburt’s birth being a source of disease, that is her arthritis, and pain, subconsciously Ruburt feared on a basic level that his mother wished to punish him for causing her such pain.

The wry neck enabled Ruburt to identify with his mother, and therefore avoid such punishment. At the same time, the wry neck itself inflicted a punishment in place of the imagined and feared greater punishment which Ruburt felt his mother intended, the imagined punishment being a basic and infantile terror of being pulled back into the womb.

If Ruburt’s mother had it to do over, she would not have had the child; and the child hidden within the adult still feels that the mother actually has the power, even now, to force the child back into the womb, and refuse to deliver it.

The psychological situations that give cause to Ruburt’s mother’s arthritis condition are not present in Ruburt, and once and for all, he does not have to fear such a dilemma. Quite simply arthritis, despite its being in his family, is not one of the diseases which will ever bother him.