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 time proceeds and children grow up, two new factors of great importance
are liable to be added to those that determine the attitude of parents
towards their children, although in many cases one or both of these
factors may have been present in germinal form from the beginning. Both
factors are connected with the biological truth that in the history of
the race the child is the natural successor and substitute of the parent;
but while having this much in common, they differ markedly in their
psychological and social nature and effects, one factor tending to produce
envy and hatred towards the children, the other love, pride and joy in
their success.
[Sidenote: Envy of childrens' superiority]
The first of these two factors consists in the unwelcome realisation that
the child will shortly be, or perhaps already is, the equal or even the
superior of the parent in certain of the more important of life's aspects.
Thus the father may become painfully aware of the fact that he is being
gradually but certainly outmatched by his son in strength or skill or
learning; while the mother may similarly find herself becoming outrivalled
by her daughter in beauty, charm, accomplishments or intellectual power.
This awareness on the parent's part of the increasing failure of their
own powers relatively to those of their children is naturally liable to
increase the bitterness that they may already feel towards their children
for other reasons. Just as the self-interests of the parents formerly
caused them to grudge the care, attention and effort which the existence
of the children demanded, so now their pride and self-love may cause them
to grudge their children that superiority which nature in the course of
time bestows upon them.
[Sidenote: Parents' identification of themselves with their children]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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