The psycho-analytic study of the familyFlugel, J. C. (John Carl)
Science
The psycho-analytic study of the family
Flugel, J. C. (John Carl)
Families; Marriage; Parent and child; Psychoanalysis
As the result of further study with gradually improving technique, Freud,
in his later works, confirmed, elaborated and extended his observations on
the influence of the family relationships in the growth and development
of the individual mind. Of particular importance, both in itself and
because of the general influence of the book as in some respects the most
thoroughgoing presentation of Freud's methods and point of view, is the
treatment of the matter in the "Interpretation of Dreams." Here Freud
introduces the subject in connection with that of the so-called typical
dreams, _i. e._ dreams which occur to a large number of persons and to the
same person on a number of separate occasions. Among such dreams, some of
fairly frequent occurrence are, as Freud points out, concerned with the
death of near and dear relatives who are still living at the time at which
the dream takes place[5]. The consideration of such dreams leads Freud to
maintain that they are to be interpreted (in accordance with the general
principle of wish-fulfilment)[6] as the manifestation of an actual desire
in the Unconscious for the death of the person concerned.
[Sidenote: The hostile element in family relationship]
In explanation of this astonishing and repellent conclusion, Freud draws
attention to the fact that the relations of the members of a family to one
another are in many respects of such a nature as to call forth hostile
emotions almost if not quite as readily as they call forth love; that
brothers and sisters, parents and children, owing to the very closeness
of the mental and material ties which bind them together and to the very
considerable degree to which they are mutually dependent, often find
themselves in opposition to, or in competition with, one another. The
antagonisms thus produced are frequently of such a kind as to meet with
the same opposition from the moral consciousness as is encountered in
the case of the sexual or quasi-sexual aspects of love between members
of the same family. In their more intense degrees, therefore, they too
are often subjected to a process of repression and become banished to the
Unconscious. They are, moreover, especially when so banished, very far
from being incompatible with the existence of a very genuine affection at
the conscious level. In view of the conflicting nature of the tendencies
that may be thus aroused, it is not surprising that as psycho-pathological
research has revealed, hatred towards near relatives may be of very
considerable importance also as a determining factor in the production of
neuroses. It has, in fact, been found that a repressed hatred may underlie
a whole series of pathological symptoms in precisely the same manner as a
repressed love.
[Sidenote: The correlations of love and hate]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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