Brothers and Sisters - for better and for worse

Fraternal relations are more than a simple transposition to siblings of children’s ambivalent feelings for their parents. They have their own dynamic, foreshadowing the process of differentiation between self and other. The brother, the sister – images both of like and other – throw light on issues of archetype and drive that are major factors in the construction of identity and relations with others. As the first figures of alterity, brothers and sisters are immediately available targets of projection, and may represent the unacceptable aspects of the subject. Throughout his lifetime, he will be accompanied by what he learned about emotional ambivalence, and also the complicity and solidarity created when the first experiences of early childhood are shared with one or several siblings. Moreover, fraternal complexes have an impact on the dynamic of any group and any affiliation.