ABSTRACT
The principal motive of the first-mentioned fantasy is of course the tendency to narcissistic self-elevation, it tallies with primitive infantile megalomania, and is frequently found in the analysis of sufferers from strong inferiority feelings. The family romance can then be developed in the service of two wishful trends, of which the first is to deny the parents' intercourse and thus their procreative ability. It is frequently found in analyses that family romance fantasies arise as a direct reaction to overhearing parental intercourse. In the course of the analysis it turned out that the reality feeling of the fantasy was borrowed from a real experience. Memories from the early infantile stage are preserved that conflict with the criticism that sets in later and do not fit in with the demands of the ego-ideal. In both cases the family romance reveals that the primitive attitude has been preserved in the fantasy.
