The psycho-analytic study of the family

by J. C. Flugel

In certain persons again—especially in members of an Family or Clan aristocratic caste or in others who are able to trace their descent through a long line of ancestors—some important aspects of the parent-love come to be attached to the idea of the whole family of which they form a part; the tendencies to esteem, obedience, admiration or idealisation originally aroused by the child's immediate parents being transferred to the family or clan regarded as a social group, which has existed in the past, exists now in those of its members who happen to be living and will continue to exist in their descendants. This kind of transference may constitute a sublimation of considerable value, inasmuch as it may afford a powerful motive to the individual for not falling below the level of attainment or civic worth that is expected of the family, and generally for doing all that may enhance, and avoiding all that may degrade, the family reputation; on the other hand, it may sometimes be productive of an undue tendency towards conservatism and may lead to the stifling of individual effort, independence and initiative, through the imposition of a too uniform standard of conduct and achievement or a too close adherence to tradition.

In many persons, again, the school, as the centre of School influence that succeeds in time (and often in importance) to that constituted by the family circle, naturally draws to itself many of the emotions which had hitherto found their exclusive outlet in the family; loyalty and obedience to school traditions, together with respect, tenderness, pride and admiration for the school as a collective body replacing to some extent the corresponding feelings which had previously been experienced principally or solely in relation to the parents.

At a later age, these same feelings may be again displaced University on to a College or University; the term Alma Mater, so frequently applied to the latter, bearing witness to the extent to which a University is habitually endowed with maternal attributes—being regarded as a kindly mother (often of venerable age and experience) who imparts to her sons the learning and wisdom that she possesses, and generally equips them for the tasks and trials of life in the outer world.

Towns[147] may also become the recipients of parentally, and Town especially maternally, directed feeling; those who love and admire a town often referring to it in terms which would be more directly appropriate to a woman; a woman behind whom the mother image can usually be discovered. The emotions aroused by the besieging, attacking or capturing of towns in warfare are also in part derived from the same source.

The same feeling too is often directed to houses, ships, Other objects churches (and especially to the institution of the Church; cp. the phrase "Mother Church"); also to trees, woods, mountains, lakes, rivers, the sea and other natural objects.

Probably the most important displacement of this kind The attitude of the individual to the state: from the sociological point of view is that in which parental attributes are transferred to the community, state, or country. The mental ties that bind the individual to the community are of course complex in nature, comprising emotional and intellectual factors belonging to a variety of psychic levels. Among the most fundamental and deep seated of these factors are, as Ernest Jones[148] has pointed out, those that take their origin in feelings that regard the self, the mother and the father respectively.

The self-regarding tendencies are enlisted in the service Self-regarding tendencies of patriotism;—on the conscious, intellectual level, through a recognition of the community of interest between the individual and the state; on the more primitive, emotional and unconscious level, through a process of identification of the individual with the state, as a result of which the former participates in the successes and failures of the latter in much the same way as if they affected him directly and principally in his own person. In these latter respects the feelings of the individual towards the state are similar in many ways to those that are involved in a corresponding identification of the self with the family, the school or any other group with whose prosperity and honour the well-being and self-respect of the individual is bound up.

The displacement of the mother-regarding feelings on to Mother regarding tendencies state is, it would seem, chiefly connected with the ideas of being nourished, trained and protected, on the one hand, and of actively protecting, on the other. Thus we tend to regard our native land as a great mother who brings into being, nourishes, protects and cherishes her sons and daughters and inspires them with respect and love for herself and her traditions, customs, beliefs and institutions; in return for which her children are prepared to work and fight for her—and above all, to protect her from her enemies; a good deal of the horror and disgust which is inspired by the idea of an invasion of one's native land by a hostile army being due to the unconscious tendency to regard such an invasion as a desecration and violation of the mother.

In the displacement of the father-regarding feelings on to Father-regarding tendencies the state, the tendencies connected with the attitude of respect, obedience and loyalty to the paternal authority are usually the most prominent. Great importance is moreover almost invariably attached to the head of the state as its embodiment and its supreme authority, the country over which he rules being looked upon as his possession or estate, which it is the duty of his children to uphold, to protect or to enlarge. Kings, as we have already seen, are habitually identified in the Unconscious with the father, as are other persons in positions of authority, and it is interesting to note that the evidence of language and of certain common appellations applied to these persons fully endorses the conclusions of Psycho-Analysis in this respect. Thus, as Rank[149] and Jones[150], following Max Müller, have pointed out, the word king is ultimately derived from the Sanskrit root gan, meaning to beget, ganaka being Sanskrit for father. The Czar of Russia was until recently called the "Little Father," the same title as the Hunnish Attila (diminutive of Atta = father). The title "Landesvater" is commonly used in Germany just as the Americans still call Washington the Father of his Country. The ruler of the Roman Catholic Church is called the "Holy Father," or by his Latin name of "Papa[151]" (from the root pa to protect, nourish). Similarly, the word "queen" comes from the Sanskrit ganí, which means mother (Greek [Greek: gynê], Gothic quinô)[152] and a queen who has had children, is the mother of the reigning monarch or has merely attained to a certain age, is frequently spoken of as the "Queen Mother."

There are considerable differences, both individual and Political importance of these tendencies national, as regards the relative importance of the father and the mother elements respectively in the general attitude adopted towards the state, and it would seem probable that these differences are apt to lead to, or at least to be correlated with, political characteristics of very great importance. Thus England is looked upon almost entirely as a mother, the father-regarding aspects of an Englishman's feeling for his country playing but a very minor part in the formation of his total attitude; the same is in the main true of modern—as distinct from prerevolutionary—France (though, as Ernest Jones[153] points out, the term 'la patrie'—combining as it does a feminine form with a masculine connotation—implies to some extent the co-operation of both elements), while the colossal female statue of Liberty at the entrance to New York would certainly seem to indicate that the land of freedom which the traveller is approaching is to be regarded as an embodiment of the matriarchal, rather than of the patriarchal, aspects of human society. Germany, on the other hand, is habitually spoken of as the Fatherland; while in Russia the Czar was regarded, to a unique extent perhaps among modern nations, as the Father of his country. The tendency to blind loyalty and obedience manifested in these latter countries compared, until recently, most markedly with the relatively free and unconstrained affection exhibited by the citizens of the former states towards their native land, and suggests the existence of a fairly close correspondence, on the one hand between the maternal view of the state and the development of democratic institutions and individual independence, and on the other hand between the paternal view and the development and retention of autocracy and a relatively strict subordination of the individual to the authority of the government and of its representatives.