Dear Lola:
“She tried very hard to get him to open up to her“- a baby/ young child is naturally very open to the mother, hiding nothing whatsoever, neither bodily functions, nor sounds and facial expressions, nothing is hidden, nothing is closed. Your brother started his life being very open to your mother, and then something significant threatened him, over time, and he closed himself in so to protect himself.
“there isn’t a single particle of darkness between them. If it helps at all, I have actually been in psychotherapy with them and the therapist never sensed anything but love and concern from them. I just get more and more confused as to how my brother came to be like this“-
– children often close their eyes when it comes to seeing darkness about their parents because it’s too scary to see darkness in the people one depends on so completely.
Maybe what you and the therapist saw was your parents’ outwardly visible and audible “anything but love and concern from them”, but your brother saw deeper and then reflected what he saw.
I don’t expect you to like what I am posting here, nor do I expect you being open to look further into this. I post this because I believe in the saying and the truth shall set you free -free from distress and sickness, that is. I bet the truth will set your brother free and the world will be just a bit safer for it.
anita