Family Constellation: Theory and Practice of a Psychological Game

If the mother is the youngest sister of sister(s), she is not too likely to be very maternal, or at least to be so consistently. In effect she prefers daughters to sons, especially older daughters whom she expects to assist her in the chores of motherhood and the household as soon as at all possible. Only in cases where she has had help all along, either by her own mother or somebody kind and motherly hired for the purpose, may her daughters escape that pressure. Boys will be puzzled by the ways in which she mixes maternal affection with caprice and somewhat fabricated seduction. They find it hard to figure her out, but if they should, they would be well prepared for almost any kind of woman likely to attract their interests.

If a daughter is the oldest sister of brother(s), the mother and she may look compatible on the surface, but they are not. The daughter may be ready relatively early in her life to play mother, but she would not have learned much of it from her mother. Besides, and partly because of this, she would be reluctant to cater to her mother. She would cater to the boys, though, in spite of the mother who will often interfere and foul up her work and accomplishments with them. The mother may do this out of mere jealousy, she suspects. The mother does not like her daughter to be on such good terms with the boys of the family, including her own husband, particularly in cases where the latter is a junior by his own sibling position. Her preference has always been to keep men breathless and surprised, but in family life the boys might get tired of it sooner or later. With all her caprice, the

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