Things were never easy within the family. But at a time when the family was oriented toward the production of goods, which alone made the survival of its members possible, there was an obvious necessity and a rational basis for their living and working together. Dire necessity did not permit putting into question the very existence of the family, despite the great emotional demands living together made on each of its members. Today the main economic activities of the family are in the nature of consumption—however productive may be what some of its members do in society. And from an early age on, each member of the family could survive without its support—since society at large is ready to provide support. It is quite easy to put the existence of the family into question. This happens very frequently, not just as families separate, or fail to be formed, but also within families which to all outer appearance are still intact. But once the family needs seriously to justify its existence, it is no longer intact as a family in the old sense. The modern family, deprived of its ancient and firm basis in economic necessity, now tries to justify its existence through the emotional ties within it. These always were present, but they were a superstructure good or bad, over the solid foundation of necessity. With the foundation of necessity removed, the emotions either tend to run rampant or to wither away. The more a family tries to justify itself by means af the feelings existing within it, the stronger these are aroused, and the more easily and severely do they get hurt. There is more reason to wish to exculpate oneself, to wish that the blame for what goes wrong should rest with someone else. The young generation easily blames their parents for all the difficulties they encounter within themselves, society, and the family. Parents prefer to see all that is wrong ascribed either to the indifferent or otherwise nasty behavior. of the new generation, to the destructive impact of the peer group, or of society at large. Which is preferred as the target to be blamed depends on the structure of the personality of the individual, the mood of the day, or the most recent headlines. In Civilization and Its Discontent Freud showed why civilization must exact a high price in psychological discomfort for the very great and real advantages it provides us: creating and maintaining a civilized life requires considerable and difficult repression and sublimation of many aspects of our selfish drives, although we would prefer them to find immediate gratification. How understandable, then, that as civilization imposes a considerable price in personal psychological frustration, the same is true for the family, out of which civilization grew. If this is so, why have we such a hard time accepting the frustrations and disappointments which are the unavoidable price we have to pay for living in families?. Why do we wish to blame the hardships of family living on something or somebody, even on ourselves, although blaming these difficulties on each other increases them beyond endurance? In the early time, the whole family was closely tied by ______.