a-general-introduction-to-psychoanalysis-sigmund-freud

far from friendly manner. Expressions such as "I don't want him! Let the stork
take him away again," are very usual. Subsequently every opportunity is
made use of to disparage the new arrival, and even attempts to do him bodily
harm, direct attacks, are not unheard of. If the difference in age is less, the
child learns of the existence of the rival with intense psychic activity, and
accommodates himself to the new situation. If the difference in age is
greater, the new child may awaken certain sympathies as an interesting
object, as a sort of living doll, and if the difference is eight years or more,
motherly impulses, especially in the case of girls, may come into play. But to
be truthful, when we disclose in a dream the wish for the death of a mother
or sister we need seldom find it puzzling and may trace its origin easily to
early childhood, often enough, also, to the propinquity of later years.
Probably no nurseries are free from mighty conflicts among the inhabitants.
The motives are rivalry for the love of the parents, articles owned in common,
the room itself. The hostile impulses are called forth by older as well as
younger brothers and sisters. I believe it was Bernard Shaw who said: "If
there is anyone who hates a young English lady more than does her mother,
it is her elder sister." There is something about this saying, however, that
arouses our antipathy. We can, at a pinch, understand hatred of brothers and
sisters, and rivalry among them, but how may feelings of hatred force their
way into the relationship between daughter and mother, parents and
children?
This relationship is without doubt the more favorable, even when looked at
from the viewpoint of the child. This is in accord with our expectation; we find
it much more offensive for love between parents and children to be lacking
than for love between brothers and sisters. We have, so to speak, made
something holy in the first instance which in the other case we permitted to
remain profane. But daily observation can show us how frequently the
feelings between parents and their grown children fail to come up to the ideal
established by society, how much enmity exists and would find expression did
not accumulations of piety and of tender impulse hold them back. The
motives for this are everywhere known and disclose a tendency to separate
those of the same sex, daughter from mother, father from son. The daughter
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