After me reading Freud thinking, I agree with the idea Freud have. Like Freud mention in the beginning of his article “The liberation of an individual, as he grows up, from the author it of his parents is one of the most necessary though one of the most painful results brought about by the course of his development.” Actually parents is child learning model. Parents are the faith of children original source. Every child’s grow are influence by their parents. When we was litter have parents just like have the small world in our hand. We will depend on they be angry on them. We can realize when they are mad for what we did. We start to against them. I think this is means we are grow up don’t want them to control us. When that time come parents are not communicate very well with their children. I think   this is the start of mental problems, and family problem. They will think that parents are no longer care about them loved them. Especially in the case of have brother or sister. This will shows the bright contrast. These can be the effect cause the distorted of child’s character. May became very silent and quiet. May also become very radical.

In his article Family Romance, Freud states “For a small child his parents are at first the only authority and the source of all belief.” is something I completely agree with. Parents are the most important pillars to their child’s foundation. The child starts looking at how the parents act and how they talk which the child starts to mimics. The child adapts to his or her surroundings and acts according to it. Freud then goes on to say that the child follows more of its own sex such as the son follows the father’s steps and daughter follows more of mom’s actions. Which is true at some extent but it is also other factors of which plays a big roles in what the child goes on to follow. It is society who sets what a man and woman is supposed to act like. A man is supposed to act a certain way where he is seemed as a strong who shows no vulnerability. A woman is supposed to be a Barbie doll who is supposed to look pretty and be a diligent flower. But many points Freud made in his piece are accurate and informative.

Simarjit Singh

I agree with the idea that “the liberation of an individual from the authority of his parents is one of the most painful results brought about by the course of his development”. Liberating from the authority of parents is a process that everyone will undergo. In the early stage of life, as Freud states, parents are the initial source of belief. In other words, we once lived under the shadow of our parents, and our behaviors and beliefs are the results of their influence. In this stage of life, children remain absolute dependent under the sole authority of their parents. While when children mature, children begin to criticize and even rebel their parents. Indeed, the authority of parents is challenged at these moments. These behaviors help children develop the idea that their parents are also normal person instead of perfect models, and they will ultimately develop as individuals who are totally independent of their parents.

While, I don’t understand the concept of Oedipus complex, which was mentioned earlier by some of the classmates. At least for me, I never bring my family members into the fantasy of secret love affairs. Probably I never think about this before I accept the idea that this kind of behavior is immoral. Or probably this theory is only applicable to mother- son relationship since Freud mentions that “In this respect, the imagination of girls is apt to show itself much weaker” when he talk about the boy’ hostile impulses towards his same-sex parent.

Even though I am a psych major, and Freud is the father of psychoanalysis, I always thought he was a little out there with his ideas. However, I really enjoyed this piece. In this essay he writes, “The liberation of an individual, as he grows up, from the authority of his parents is one of the most necessary though one of the most painful results brought about by the course of his development.” I can resonate with this on a personal level. From a young age, I have always believed that my parents were the smartest people on the planet. They’re my parents. They’ve taught me almost everything I know. They have been there through the time I took the back wheels off of my bike until as recent as this semester when I was studying for my physics exam. But, the problem (or the blessing I should say) with getting older, is realizing that you have been seeing the world through someone else’s eyes. This realization is pertinent to self-understanding. When you start to explore the world through your eyes, you become what the world calls a “functioning adult”.

Throughout the passage Freud discussed some valid points about family romance to a certain degree. On page 238, Freud states “At about the period I have mentioned, then, the child’s imagination becomes engaged in the task of getting free from the parents of whom he now has a low opinion and of replacing them by others, who, as a rule, are of higher social standing.” As a child I used to day dream about Oprah being my mom; being that Oprah social standing is much higher than my parents. However, my daydreams remained just that a daydream; I never had thoughts of my biological parents being my adoptive parents. I never tried to justify my fantasy into my reality. Freud theory is basically stating the child is trying to adjust and replace their family’s circumstances. The child clearly wants a richer family. He makes that clear on page 238 when he states, “the family romance undergoes a curious curtailment: it contents itself with exalting the child’s father”. Just shows the hostile behavior the child has with the his father being that their the same sex.

What confused me the most is when he touched based on the “Second (sexual stage).
Freud mentions, “The child, having learnt about sexual processes, tends to picture to himself erotic situations and relations, the motive force behind this being his desire to bring his mother (who is the subject of the most intense sexual curiosity) into situations of secret infidelity and into secret love-affairs.” Is the child trying to find his mother a rich man or is he having fantasy of erotic relations with his mother?

Some of Freud’s proposals are useful for understanding my family relations; while most doesn’t apply. For example, he talks about having to share your parent’s love and affection with your other siblings. On page 237 he states “on which he feels he is not receiving the whole of his parents’ love, and, most of all, on which he feels regrets at having to share it with brothers
and sisters.” Me being a family of 8, words cannot explain how many times I felt left out or I lacked attention. I feed off of attention which made it extremely difficult to share my parents. Although, I was my parent’s favorite child, at least that’s what I believe; I never allowed my jealousy to get the best of me.

Freud stated that “For a small child his parents are at first the only authority and the source of all belief” in Family Romance. Children have the most contacts with their parents, so it is normal that children admire their parents. Also, parents are their children’s first teachers; they have to establish authority in order to influence their children.

From my own experience, I agree with him. In Chinese culture, children are expected to be obedient. My friends were all afraid to go against their parents when they were little. In some extreme condition, children must listen to their parents because their parents think they are always right. However, my own experience is quite different. My parents provide me with more flexibility and freedom when I was a kid. My parents did not present their authority too often because they believe that they can not be right all the time and they should discuss and communicate with me together.

Freud also said that we might compare our parents to other people’s parents. I have done that before, but it makes me have more appreciation and gratitude of my parents. When I was in China, my friends’ parents gave them a lot pressure on schoolwork because they expect them to obtain good grades all the time. My parents is different because they believe that it is more important to develop a good mindset when children are young. They did not give pressure on me and always ask me to balance between schoolwork and entertainment.

As Freud says, ” For a child his parents are at first the only authority and the source of all belief” I totally agree with this idea because the process of growth of children in the family involves the aspiration of the children to replace and overcome their parents. I remember when I was a child all I wished was to be like  my parents until I grew up and see things differently. One of Freud’s primary arguments is the conflict and relationship surrounded by the family. This is on the development of the romantic attachments and fantasies between children and parents. According to Freud there are many occasions on which a child feels he is not receiving the whole love of his parents. This mostly happens when the child has siblings and feels that his parents love his siblings more than him. I agree with this because most of us has gone through these feelings, sometimes we can even imagine that our parents are maybe not our biological parents. We also often compare our parents to other parents and have negative ideas about them when something happen to us or when we are dissatisfied.

Aminata Toure

I agree with Freud when he states a small child’s goal is to be like his father or her mother (base on children’s sex) because a small child spend the most of time with their parents. When I was young, I believed my mom was the most wonderful woman in the world, and I want to be a woman exactly like my mom. In addition, I strongly agree with Freud that as children grow up, and intellectual increase, children start to doubt the authority of their parents and begin to criticize their parents. Especially during adolescence, children inclined to act hostile to attract their parents’ attention when they feel they have been slighted or they do not feel strong love from their parents. For example, my brother is fifteen years old. When my parents praise me, and point out my brother’s mistakes, he always gets mad and acts even more wrongful to prove he is right or to show his “existence value”. I believe my brother feels he has been slighted, and he feels he does not receive love from my parents or he should share parents with me.  Moreover, my brother believes he can be independent and want to overcome my parents’ authority.

However, I do not agree with Freud when he explain about day-dreams. Not everybody day-dreams about their further; not everybody day-dreams to be in higher social standing; not everybody day-dreams to replace their parents. I do believe that comparison raise the child’s envy, so children might complain about their birth, but phantasy do not change anything in their lives. I complained about my parents because of their low income and low education, so I have to work much harder than rich children. However, I also understand  if I want to improve my life, I have to get higher education and work harder. we can never change our birth. We can never replace our parents.

Freud’s theory is a bit of a far stretch in my opinion. I agree with some of the aspects he mentions like the stages a child goes through and the change in connection with the parents in the beginning to present day. I agree that it is all about the parents upbringing that helps us shape our views on life, does make us who we are, and places strategic permanent ways of thinking about life in our subconscious.  Yes, I guiltily admit that I did wish for new parents once or twice in my childhood but don’t believe that my phantasies connect do to that. Every person is different and generalizing this concept onto everyone I disagree with but hey maybe that’s where they pitched all these catch phrases in cinema/motion pictures today that always state “oh she has daddy issues”, “that’s cause you hate your dad” which I also don’t fully agree with being brought up in a one parent household.

I do agree with Freud, to an extent. In “Family Romance”, Freud touches upon the psychology of children, in respect to their family. As a young child, according to Freud, the parents are the first source of authority, and truth in their lives. When the child matures, the child begins to challenge and juxtapose his experinces with the experiences he has, and had, with his parents; in most cases, according to Freud, they turn out to be negative. In my family, I am the middle child. For those who are the middle child amongst their siblings, I think they know what I am trying to allude to–“middle child syndrome.”

When I was very young, I didn’t pay too much attention to this, but when I got older I realized how differently my parents treated my siblings, compared to me. I became frustrated many times, and started to investigate if I was the only one struggling with “middle child syndrome.” To my surprise, at that time, many of my friends who were also the middle child either felt the same, or didn’t care. But, there was one friend I had at church that was the middle child in her family, but she did not feel the same way I did. I was jealous of her, and started to picture my self as an adopted child, in her family; while fantasizing what it would be like to be apart of her family.