This is not the first time I have been introduced to the subject matter in Family Romance.  Freud’s theory discussed in the reading is commonly known as the Oedipus complex.  However, all I knew was the phrase “every boy wants to secretly kill his father and sleep with his mother.” This is the first time I have been given a more in depth description of the theory.  I found it useful because the reading shows that this “family romance” is a fiction if put literally (at least in most cases), and in fact the process is completely natural and necessary for one to reach independence.

Although, at first, I still feel a little uncomfortable saying I agree with the theory I soon accepted it as true. The important thing to remember when accepting the theory is to look below the surface level of the text. The explanation is a reference to understand the process in a primitive way, not to say that sons will actually act upon sleeping with their mothers.  I myself as a kid thought of my father as the best man in the world and my mother in an equally flattering light. As I child I thought I should marry a man just like my father when I got older.  Fast forward a few years, and I soon started to learn things about my father that removed the veil of perfection I saw him through as a child.

When Freud mentioned, “But here the influence of sex is already in evidence, for a boy is far more inclined to feel hostile impulses towards his father than towards his mother and has a far more intense desire to get free from him than from her. ” (p. 237)  I thought of a few examples where I have seen this fight for dominance between the same sex in life -as well as basically every Planet Earth episode. I also thought of how the same situation can arise between mother and daughter.  Not to belittle the conversation, but if this complex wasn’t true then shows like Dr. Phil and Maury wouldn’t exist.

It makes sense to me that children start to “replace” their parents because of the fact that no one could live up to the ideal of a toddler. Though I think that children will return to a place of respect and admiration for their parents, even for non perfect relationships, as shown by Freud’s example of daydreaming. ” We learn from their interpretation that even in later years, if the Emperor and Empress appear in dreams, those exalted personages stand for the dreamer’s father and mother.1 So that the child’s overvaluation of his parents survives as well in the dreams of normal adults. ” (p.240) As you can see, as an adult, the child of the parents will still have am idealized few of his parents even if it is represented subconsciously.