[40] Cp. Rank, "The Myth of the Birth of the Hero," 1913.
[41] Freud, "Beiträge zur Psychologie des Liebeslebens," Jahrbuch für psychoanalytische und psychopathologische Forschungen, 1910, II, 389.
[42] See Rank, op. cit., also the more recent treatment by the Questionnaire method by Edmund S. Conklin, "The Foster-Child Fantasy," American Journal of Psychology, 1920, XXXI, 59.
[43] There can be no doubt that this is a factor of very considerable significance. The child projects on to its parents its own desires, ambitions and aspirations, thus finding compensation for the gradual realisation of its own deficiencies, limitations and want of power (in much the same way as parents in their turn find consolation for their own disappointments in contemplating the successes—real or anticipated—of their children. Cp. below Ch. XIV.). In this way certain of the Narcissistic impulses find displaced expression in the idealisation of the parents and the exaggeration of their powers—a factor which probably plays a part of great importance in the Psychology of Religion (Cp. below Ch. XIII.).
The following incident in connection with a young boy personally known to me amusingly illustrates the tendency to substitute an ideal parent for a (disappointing) real one, together with the religious and Narcissistic implications of this tendency. S. F., aged 7, insisted on being called Jesus Christ, in spite of the remonstrations of his father who pointed out to him among other things that Jesus Christ was the Son of God; to which S. F. replied "So am I." On receiving the reply: "You cannot be, for I am your father," he retorted, "God is my real father, you are only my professional father" (referring to the fact that his father was a "professional" musician).
[44] There is reason to believe that an influence of this kind was a factor of importance in determining the nature of Darwin's scientific work. Cp. E. J. Kempf, "Charles Darwin. The affective Sources of his Inspiration and Anxiety Neurosis." Psychoanalytic Review, V. 151.
[45] For a study of unconscious family influences affecting the careers of children cp. Stekel, "Berufswahl und Kriminalität," Archiv für Kriminalanthropologie und Kriminalistik, XLI.
[46] "The Interpretation of Dreams," 243 ff.
[47] To the same cause is probably due the use of four-poster beds in which the sleeper is completely enclosed by curtains and of those oldfashioned beds (still to be seen in some parts of the world) which could be entirely shut off from the rest of the room by a wooden partition or sliding door containing only one very small circular aperture for the admission of air.
[48] Ferenczi, "Contributions to Psycho-Analysis," 189. Freud, "Vorlesungen zur Einführung in die Psychoanalyse," 486.