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
[Footnote 167: It is still to some extent a matter of dispute as to how
far existing races of savages are ignorant of the rôle of the father
in reproduction. There is much evidence in favour of such ignorance
being often very considerable and sometimes perhaps complete (See E. S.
Hartland, "Primitive Paternity," 1910). Some authors however (_e. g._
Walter Heape, "Sex Antagonism," and Carveth Read, "No Paternity," _Jour.
Royal Anthrop. Inst._ 1918, XLVIII, 146) have maintained that the facts
do not admit of the assumption of complete ignorance. Read especially
has shown that such ignorance as exists may often be due to social or
individual inhibitions, which prevent the knowledge of the true facts (a
knowledge which exists in certain persons even in primitive communities)
from penetrating to the consciousness of the majority of the inhabitants.
If this view is correct, it reveals an interesting parallel to the fate
of sexual knowledge in the individual; psycho-analytic investigation
often showing that knowledge of the facts of sex and reproduction can be
repressed from consciousness, though persisting in the unconscious levels
of the mind. (_Cp._ Freud, "Three Contributions to the Theory of Sex," 37
ff., 51.)]
[Footnote 168: Where of course the vagueness in question is beyond all
doubt due to repression.]
[Footnote 169: E. S. Hartland, "Primitive Paternity." Vol. I, Ch. 1.]
[Footnote 170: A frequent dream in childhood consists in being chased by
some wild and dangerous animal, which on analysis is almost invariably
found to represent the father--the dream being comparable as regards
conative tendency to the games of being pursued, in which children so
often delight and which arouse in them a pleasant combination of fear and
excitement, highly tinged with masochistic feeling. As regards mythology,
the cases in which--as in that of Romulus and Remus--the rôle of foster
parent is taken over by animals are of course quite numerous (_cp._ too in
this connection the recent literary examples of Mowgli and Tarzan; also
the dog Nana in Peter Pan), while in fairy stories there are also many
examples of animals being endowed with parent attributes.]
[Footnote 171: "Analyse der Phobie eines fünfjährigen Knaben." _Jahrbuch
für Psychopathologische und Psychoanalytische Forschungen_, 1909. Vol. I,
p. 1.]
[Footnote 172: "Contributions to Psycho-Analysis," Ch. IX, 204.]
[Footnote 173: Sometimes however, one of these opposing elements is
directed to the animal, the other to the human parent. Thus, as Mr. Burt
has suggested to me, it would seem that in delinquents the tender elements
are often withdrawn from the parents and manifest themselves in the
excessive fondness for animal pets, to which Lombroso has drawn attention.
("Criminal Man," 1911, 62-3.)]
[Footnote 174: Frazer considers that the Australian system of exogamy
bears the stamp of "deliberate design." "Totemism and Exogamy," IV, 112
ff.]
[Footnote 175: Freud, "Totem and Taboo," 198 ff.]
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