When we are children it is hard for us to allow our parents to stop being extensions of our own needs and to become people with needs of their own. At the same time that we are clinging to them with a false dependency, we are also struggling to separate ourselves. That is why many children have fantasies of being orphans or having been switched in the cradle. As one author noted, we can work through a lot of growing up by reading or listening to fairy tales.
