The Afrikaans Family Romance

Abstract

When discussing family murders, it is helpful to return to the psychoanalytic register that is so fruitful for analysing the overdetermined imaginary landscapes of the late apartheid period. The family romance is a fantasy structure full of narrative. To summarise Freud’s account, in his early years the child’s most intense wish is to emulate the parent of the same sex. He then encounters other parents, compares them to his own and realises that his are neither unique nor perfect. Criticism of the parents begins and the child creates a fantastic narrative whereby he imagines himself to be adopted or a foundling, the offspring of people whose noble qualities equal the omnipotence he originally saw in his real parents. This Freudian family romance is a consequence of Oedipal urges and like Oedipal urges it fades as normal development continues. The neurotic, however, never quite lets go of these fantasies, which can lead to estrangement from the parents and misaligned development (Freud 2001, 237–40).