Self-referential records

Assuming I have the following table:

CREATE TABLE refers (
id SERIAL PRIMARY KEY,
name VARCHAR(255) NOT NULL,
parent_id INTEGER NOT NULL,
FOREIGN KEY (parent_id) REFERENCES refers(id)
);
I need to insert two records so that "select * from refers" looks like this:

=# select * from refers;
id | name | parent_id
----+------+-----------
1 | xxxx | 1
2 | yyy | 2

The first record can't be inserted because I don't yet know the parent_id. The second record can be inserted after the first, but I since this is merely a large .sql file that I intend to shove into the PG, I'd much rather declare a variable in the script to get this done. I'm thinking something like the following pseudo-code:

INSERT INTO refers (name, parent_id) VALUES ('xxxx', :id);
SELECT id INTO :parent_id FROM refers WHERE name='xxxx';
INSERT INTO refers (name, parent_id) VALUES ('yyy', :parent_id);

Obviously the above is gibberish, but hopefully it makes clear what I'm trying to do :)

Oh, and "parent_id" is NOT NULL because I hate the logical inconsistencies associated with NULL values.

Cheers,
Ovid--
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