Analysis Of Jean-Jacques Rousseau's Confessions

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The early development is dependent on the stimuli that they receive during this period. As a result, parents are urged to cultivate positive habits within their children. The reason for this is linked to children and their thought processes, it is most likely that if they are taught these habits early, they will unconsciously continue to follow them. By the same token, Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s Confessions, is an autobiography, detailing his early childhood to a startling degree. Rousseau’s childhood was marked by the influence of the lack of a motherly figure for part of his life. He found that he could confide within the motherly guise of Mademoiselle Lambercier. It was the Mademoiselle that cultivated his ways, but while it offered solace in …show more content…

His father Issac, saw too much of Suzanne in the young Rousseau and was summarily sent away to Mademoiselle Lambercier. Yearning for a direction in his life, he began following in the footsteps of the Mademoiselle. His admiration grew into a desire to become noticed, and with this the intensity of his oedipal complex began to grow. As indicated in the Leichty study, “More of the young male adults who were separated from their fathers during the Oedipal period showed strong Oedipal intensity than did those in a similar group who were not separated…the separated group tended to a greater degree to choose someone other than the father as their ego ideal.”(Leichty, 216) Leichty’s case in point is shown as Rousseau indicates that the beatings had only intensified this Oedipal intensity. “…what is even more bizarre, that this punishment had made me even fonder of the woman who had administered it…even in the shame that accompanied it, an element of sensuality which left me with more desire than fear at the prospect of experiencing it again by the same hand.” (pp.394) Rousseau was conscious in his actions, willingly committing acts to be punished but at the same time careful to not exceed her patience. But as

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