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
With the firm establishment of object love towards the parent of the
opposite sex, the conditions are present for the arousal of jealousy
towards the parent of the same sex, since this latter is soon found to
possess claims upon the affection and attention of the loved parent which
are apt to conflict with the similar claims of the child. Thus the young
girl begins to resent the affection and consideration which her mother
receives at the hands of her father and comes in time to look upon her
mother as in some sense a sexual rival who competes with her father's
love. In imagination she will allow herself to occupy her mother's place
and may even attempt to put this fancy into practice, if opportunity
should offer; as in the case cited by Freud[12] of the eight year old
girl who openly proclaimed herself as her mother's successor when her
mother was absent on occasion from the family table, or in the still more
striking case of the four year old child who said:--"Mother can just stay
away now; then father will have to marry me and I shall be his wife."
Boys experience a similar jealousy towards their father and often come to
regard his presence in the family as that of an intruder or interloper who
disturbs the otherwise peaceful and loving relations between his mother
and himself. This view of the father as intruder is particularly liable to
occur if (as so frequently happens) the father is absent from the home for
relatively long periods during the working hours of the day or even for
several days or weeks on end[13]. Even in the cases where the father is
not frequently away from home, his continued presence is sooner or later
found to be irksome in the same way as is the mother's in the case of
girls, and the desire for his removal will gradually begin to make itself
felt, if not in consciousness, at least in the unconscious levels of the
mind.
[Sidenote: Causes of parent-hatred]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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