ABSTRACT
The usual forms of the neurotic romance represent a phantasy of parental ennoblement: the parents are raised from modest or even poor surroundings to aristocratic and sometimes to royal station. The work of Rank on mythology has shown us that in the best-known hero-myths (Moses, Oedipus, Romulus and Remus, etc.) a similar story is to be found; all are of noble birth, are brought up by poor country folk (or even by animals), and in the end regain their rank. These rustic (or animal) foster-parents, on the one hand, and the aristocratic parents, on the other, constitute merely a reduplication of the parental imago in general. An untrammelled love-life (incestuous, of course, in addition) has an irresistible appeal for the children; to attain this freedom they are prepared to sacrifice rank and position. As is well known, this tendency to return to nature is sometimes carried out in reality.
