Discussion of Roderic Gorney's Article, Of Divers Things: Preliminary Note on the Dynamics of Scuba Diving

Dr. Gorney has given us a vivid and personal discussion of some psychodynamic aspects of scuba diving. He describes a characteristic “shallow water euphoria” (as distinguished from the “rapture of the depths” caused by nitrogen narcosis in deep-sea divers) in terms of a combination of physiological changes (including sensory, postural, circulatory, and biochemical factors) and psychological effects of submersion. The latter are interpreted in terms of regressive mobilization of infantile affects. One might raise an eyebrow at some of the author's comparisons between the life of the human infant and the subsurface life of the diver; nevertheless, in general, this portion of Gorney's hypothesis for shallow water euphoria as “the siren song of the ocean-mother” is attractive. Even if the appeal were only a literary one, we should be tempted to accept it for its romance and its charm.

Certain of the author's derivative propositions (e.g., the camaraderie of diving partners as partial displacement from mother to beloved sibling) are a little more difficult to accept. No special data—even anecdotal—are provided to characterize the relationship between divers, or to differentiate it from other companionships among sportsmen. Additional postulates are offered which cannot be seen to derive at all from the basic formulation. For example Gorney defines a “synergism” of wishful fantasy (to return magically to blissful reunion with mother) with physiologically initiated euphoria. “Thereby diving mobilizes … scoptophilia, impulses to devour, pregnancy and rebirth fantasies, castration fears. …” We are not told about any such experiences; indeed it is suggested that, through the “synergism” proposed above, diving reinforces counter-phobic defenses rather than mobilizing castration fears.

Without gainsaying the author's basic contention, I would like to point out that states of euphoria are not uncommon in adventuresome sports, from skiing to sailing, in which a major escape from th