David & Mary – thanks for your work with Pluto. I have now taken over and Pluto is working through congruence with plantary aspirations. Prognosis is guarded but positive.

I can say, with confidence, that Pluto now describes itself as an Ex-Planet. “I no longer have striving to be a planet, I am comfortable with being a diffuse self, kind of a cloud of molecules and gases. I used to think there was something wrong with me. I felt pressure to be a planet. To act normal; to fit in with the other celestial bodies. I felt all sorts of tension. It never felt real, like I was trying to integrate parts of me that could never be integrated.”

This “false self” was his primary identity when he came to see me, some 4 years ago. He looked up to the larger planets, but always felt detached from them. Yearning to be solid and massive, he felt small and gasseous; but instead of being honest, he portrayed himself to scientists as a substantive, small planet. It felt phoney, empty. Time and again he would collapse into shame as he realized he was a gaseous cloud…not a planet at all.

These repetitive shame experiences eventually were confronted in therapy as a poor solution to dealing with himself. He was stuck in a repetitive pattern of unrealistic expectations for Planethood. Expectations that put too much pressure on him and never fit with his gaseous nature. Eventually, he realized that although he was different than other planets, he was still a vital member of the galactic community. It was not up to Jupiter or Mars to decide what true membership in the universe was, but that there were many kinds of members to the universe.

This released all the pressure for Pluto. A deep calm came over him, he no longer sought compulsive connection with other planets as a means of affirming himself. He could see that he was adequate just as he was.

This is not a typical case for me. The outcome is much better than I thought. I am much less successful with asteroids, who remain frozen for years in their fantasies that they will change the course of the planets in the heavens, and pursue this goal compulsively with little chance of success.

Or read your analysis of it…