family romance

English

Etymology

From family + romance, in psychoanalytic sense after German Familienroman.

Noun

family romance (plural family romances)

1. A romantic story about a given family. [from 19th c.]
2. (psychoanalysis) A childhood fantasy whereby a child imagines that their real parents are in fact royalty or otherwise of high birth; (loosely), the emotional ties linking the various members of a family. [from 20th c.]
   • 1990, Camille Paglia, Sexual Personae:

     Every encounter with friend or foe, every clash with or submission to authority bears the perverse traces of family romance.

Translations

childhood fantasy

• French: roman familial m
• German: Familienroman (de) m
• Turkish: aile romansı