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 8: This is a most important and far-reaching limitation. In
order to avoid entering upon many difficult but weighty matters which are
not strictly relevant to our present theme, we have here--and throughout
the book--necessarily had to content ourselves with a somewhat one-sided
and misleading portrayal of human psychic development as a whole. This
deficiency is most marked with regard to the treatment of the great group
of self-preserving and self-regarding tendencies, which we have only
touched upon occasionally and of which we have nowhere attempted any
adequate presentation. As a consequence of this, it must be borne in mind
that from the point of view of general psychology, we have frequently
laid too much stress upon the object-regarding tendencies (see below),
to the relative neglect of much that is more primitive and fundamental
in human nature. Our excuse must be that our subject naturally brings us
into far closer touch with the social and (to use a convenient term of
Ferenczi's) allo-erotic aspects of the mind than with those other aspects
which are more intimately concerned with the individual as an independent
microcosmic organism. To correct and amplify the inadequate conception
of the human mind and of human mental development to which our present
treatment might lead if taken by itself, the reader should consult Freud's
"Three Contributions to the Theory of Sex" and his important paper "Zur
Einführung des Narzißmus," _Jahrbuch der Psychoanalyse_, VI, 1. The works
of Alfred Adler, though often both exaggerated and, especially in their
English form, very nearly unreadable, contain some interesting material in
this connection.
A very illuminating consideration of the problem with which we are
immediately concerned at this point--the early development of object love
in the child and the relations of this object love to the activities of
the auto-erotic stage--will be found in a paper on the "Psychology of
the New Born Infant" by David Forsyth. (To be published in the _British
Journal of Psychology_).]
[Footnote 9: _Cp._ especially Freud, "Three Contributions to the Theory of
Sex."]
[Footnote 10: "Three Contributions to the Theory of Sex," 80, 81.]
[Footnote 11: Among other reasons for the greater liability of women to
neurosis, one of great importance is the transference, in the course of
sexual development, of the chief seat of erotic sensibility from the
clitoris to the vagina.]
[Footnote 12: "The Interpretation of Dreams," 219.]
[Footnote 13: Many instances of the influence of the father's absence
could be observed in connection with the war. Thus a small boy of five
known to the writer solemnly assured his mother that now that his father
was permanently away, it would be only right for her to marry him, her
son, instead.]
[Footnote 14: Mr. Cyril Burt informs me that he has encountered two quite
definite cases of attempted fratricide in the course of his work as
Psychologist to the London County Council.]
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