When reading Freud’s Family Romances, there were a variety of instances in which the relationship between conflict and individuality were present. First, Freud begins by talking about how children grow up viewing their parents as the “source of all belief,” but then the child begins to reconsider the role their parent plays in their lives. This represents conflict because the child grows out of their original thoughts. As such, their mind has changed its opinion on their parents, and this is a conflict because on one hand, parents are often the most influential beings in a child’s life, but then, as they grow and develop, children yearn for individuality and do not want their parents to play such roles in their lives.

Another example of the relationship between conflict and individuality is when Freud says that a boy is “far more inclined to feel hostile impulses towards his father” than he is to his mother. This represents conflict because a fatherly figure is the type of person the boy wishes to become some day, and likely will become similar to, as they are both males. However, the boy is still his own individual person, and therefore becomes more hostile towards his father. As an individual, Freud’s viewpoint repels against individuality and causes conflict because although a boy will one day become a figure similar to that of his father, he still has harsher feelings against him than he does his mother. In other instances as well, such as when a boy attributes “his mother as many fictitious love-affairs,” the relationship between individuality and conflict is present because the boy needs to have his own love affairs, as an individual, yet at the same time, he is faced with conflict because he views a family member in his love affairs. Therefore, there is a strong relationship between conflict and individuality in Freud’s essay.