The psycho-analytic study of the family. J. C. Flugel
work have indicated that the danger lies most frequently in the direction of too great, rather than of too little, dependence on the efforts and guidance of the parents or their substitutes. This fact must not however be allowed to blind us to the existence of a danger of an opposite character—that of a too rapid or too complete emancipation from parental authority. Such emancipation would, it is true, seem to occur seldom enough as a direct consequence of the unfolding of the child's individual capabilities and desires: the attitude of dependence necessarily adopted in childhood and early youth, together with the respect almost inevitably inspired in the very young by the greater power, knowledge and experience of the parents, effectually prevents this in the majority of cases. But it may easily come about as the result of a reaction against a too and not suddenly as the consequence of a revolt against parental authority insistent or despotic use of the parental power. Parents who are too severe, too repressive, or even too careful, as regards the upbringing of their children, will—especially if the latter happen to possess strong tendencies to self-assertion—often bring about a state of revolt against their own authority, in which all that may be good and wise in that authority is deliberately neglected or condemned, since the children have grown to look upon their parents as tyrants and taskmasters rather than as helpers and protectors. A stern or bullying father, a nagging or over anxious mother, will thus frequently produce a rebellious son or daughter, who will respect neither the advice or commands of the parents themselves nor those of their (mental) substitutes in later life. Such children, as they grow up, may be prevented from profiting to the desirable extent by the wisdom and experience of past ages, as represented in the traditions and dictates of authority, and (what is worse) may even become unfit for taking their place in any scheme of harmonious social life, through inability to submit to the degree of individual subordination, which such social life inevitably demands[31].
These considerations with reference to the growth of the The wider social bearings of this subject individual personality in relation to the family environment are indeed, as we have already pointed out, for the most part of a sufficiently obvious character and, in their more general bearings at any rate, have for some time been commonplaces in certain schools of social, ethical, and educational thought. Where modern psychology (and particularly the work of the Zürich school) has been of service, is in drawing attention to the importance of the family as the environment in which the first steps in the path of self help and self guidance must take place—steps upon the direction and extent of which subsequent progress in the wider spheres of scholastic, social and political life very greatly depends. The rapidity with which, and the extent to which, a child attains to independence in relation to his family, are to a large extent prophetic of the subsequent attainment of independence towards the world at large. A too close reliance upon the ideals, standards, conventions and protective power of the family circle may hinder all initiative and originality in individual thought and action. On the other hand, a too sudden or too complete revolt from the parental guidance and tradition may be productive of a bias against, and disrespect for, every kind of authority and convention, that will tend to prevent all use and enjoyment of the experience of the past and all orderly co-operation in the social life of the present. With these possibilities as the result of failure, the task of the proper upbringing of the child in relation to his family environment becomes indeed one the importance of which can scarcely be exaggerated.
CHAPTER VI
ABNORMALITIES AND VARIETIES OF DEVELOPMENT—LOVE AND HATE
Up to this point, in studying the process of individual The study of the abnormal in Psychology development in relation to the family environment, we have as far as possible confined our attention to the more normal aspects of this process, neglecting for the most part the many variations and aberrations to which it is liable. It is now time to explore more carefully some of the more important of these byways into which the human mind may wander in the course of its development—byways which we have hitherto passed unnoticed, or at most examined with a hasty glance, as we traced the direct path of emotional development from childhood to maturity. Some of these byways lie near to the direct path which we have already followed; others depart more widely from it, approaching near to, or sometimes definitely entering, the region of the abnormal or pathological.
As regards these latter, however, it must be borne in mind that here (as in most other cases of the treatment of the abnormal in Psychology) the distinction between normal and abnormal is one which is drawn for the sake of practical convenience only, and which indicates merely a difference of degree not a difference in quality, between the phenomena which it distinguishes. Even those manifestations which mark the most extreme departures from the normal are present as possibilities in all of us: it is only a question of the extent of our tendency towards them and of the intensity of the predisposing causes in our environment. A slight alteration in the balance of our mental forces or in the circumstances of our life and upbringing, and we too might fall victims to the aberrations which now seem to us so repulsive, foolish or ridiculous, when displayed by others. The abnormal in Psychology is most frequently only an aspect of the normal magnified beyond its usual dimensions and thus brought out of proportion to the other aspects of the mind. For this reason the study of the abnormal is often the best means of investigating the minute structure of the normal: and in the present case we shall find that when we have reviewed the principal abnormalities and variations in the psychic development of the individual in relation to his family, we shall be in a much more favourable position for arriving at a decision as to our own attitude—theoretical and practical—towards this development than if we had simply considered the process of growth in its strictly normal aspects.
Byways in human development, both emotional and intellectual, Abnormalities of development at different levels may diverge from the main track at various points in its course—some near its origin in the infantile strata of the mind, some at a later stage of progress. Those which leave the main track at a relatively early point preserve, as a rule, throughout their course some more or less definite indication of their early origin, some trace of infantile or childish character; while those which take their departure at a subsequent stage bear the marks of a later, but still immature, condition of development. As each variation or aberration thus, to some extent, corresponds in nature to the point of development at which it took its rise, it is possible to classify such variations and aberrations according to their point of origin; and to regard each one as a fixation or arrest of development at a certain point in the main track of progress. What is true of human development in general is true more particularly of the development of the individual's relation to his family. The more primitive variations will be found to bear the characteristics of the early stages of the individual's mental growth while the later variations will indicate a more advanced condition of this growth.
In the previous chapters we have seen that in the earliest stages of development the most important psychic reactions of the child (so far as they concern us here) are those connected with the parents. At a later stage, the tendencies and emotions originally centering in the parents undergo (under the influence of Repression) a process of Displacement on to other persons and objects. This important fact in the process of development may serve us as a preliminary basis of classification in dealing with the numerous variations which we shall encounter. We shall first undertake a review of the more primitive types of variation in which the abnormal elements are directly connected with the child's relations to its parents, passing on subsequently to the more complex types in which a well marked displacement of the child's original feelings has taken place, as the result of which the abnormality is no longer directly connected with the parents themselves but with a substitute for these.
As regards the first class, the general nature of the psychic Abnormalities and variations in the parent—regarding tendencies defects which may be met with is, in the main, familiar to us from our consideration of the early stages of normal development. If any of the features of the individual's relations to his parents which we there passed in review—the love and hate aspects of the Œdipus complex, the dependence on the efforts of the parents as regards self maintenance and preservation, the general obedience to, and reliance on, the authority of the parents—should persist at a relatively advanced