Freud Lives in My House

So I'm a psychologist, but I actually despise Freud's writings. They do not hold up to scientific scrutiny and they are one of the big reasons why people think psychology is either a joke or not a science. I teach my students that Freud is more studied by people in the humanities (arts and English) than by people in psychology. In fact, when I was at Uncle Derik's house, I saw at least one Freud book and one Jung book, which is exactly two more than I have (Uncle Derik went to art school, is a writer and a librarian). Freud's ideas are fantastic to mine for the non-real world, but useless when it comes to raising kids.

So here's the really funny part. My kid is so very much living the Freud life. Between 3 and 8 kids are in the phallic stage. Part of this stage is the Oedipal complex for boys. Boys fall in love with their mothers and dad becomes the "enemy". For more than a year, I have been living out this scenario. Dermot and Ethan are okay, but sometimes Dermot says some really strange things. For over a year he has wanted to marry me and give me married kisses. Fortunately, married kisses are normal kisses but you turn your head to opposite sides. He also says "Mama only" quite a lot. "I want Mama, not Daddy."

Well today for the first time Dermot told Ethan that he wanted to fight him and that the winner would get Mama. Then Dermot pretended to hit Ethan in the stomach and declared himself the victor. After that he said, "Mama's mine." If that kid even brings up something related to castration anxiety, so help me god. I don't know if I can handle 2-3 more years of this. It's funny, and it will make for great conversation to future dates, but it's really creepy. I'm focusing on the aspect that this means he really loves me and that I mean a lot to him. I know that by his age I was already having negative feelings toward my parents. When he does, they are very fleeting.