In Sigmund Freud’s essay “Family Romances”, he discusses the interesting psychological relationship between a child and their parents. The lines “For a small child his parents are at first the only authority and the source of all belief. The child’s most intense and most momentous wish during these early years is to be like his parents (that is, the parent of his own sex) and to be big like his father and mother.” were quite interesting to me in the sense that freud is basically saying that parents are the 1 and only factor that comes to the development of a child in both thought and behavioral aspects of their life. In addition, Freud mentions how, depending on sex, the child hopes to be like the parent of their own sex, and later wants to push them away during maturity, and then stays attached to the other parent of the opposite sex.
Freud mentions that even though the child sees so highly of his parents before puberty, after puberty their outlook on life and his parents change. He writes “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”. This is interesting because at this point, a child is older and seeking individuality and seeks identity through creating conflict with the parents they ones idolized in every way. I believe that to truly have individuality, you must create conflict, minor is acceptable, against your makers (parents) because without showing your own beliefs and your own identity that differs from those you’ve been with your entire life, you will just sink in to the background and not obtain individuality.
This is a great response. I especially like the way you stated the child’s search for individuality and how they try to achieve it through creating conflict to separate themselves from their parents. These mental conflicts are the ways in which a child can develop their own feelings and beliefs which will ultimately lead to independence and individuality.