The true cause of these feelings of deep attachment to a mother and rivalry with a father comes from a desire to return to a paradisiacal state provided by the mother, and from living in a patriarchal society in which the boy feels oppressed by the father and wishes to be liberated from his oppressor. (Fromm 1980).
It is important to remember the unique and special relationship between mother and infant. While in the womb the mother is the source of life for the unborn child. He is dependent on the mother for everything needed to sustain life. This does not change much after birth. The mother is the source of food, protection, and without her love and tenderness he would become mentally sick. She also has the power to take his life away if she refuses her motherly functions (Fromm 1980). While in infancy the child is not burdened with responsibility, these things are taken care of by the mother. It is indeed a carefree time unlike any other during the human experience.
It easy to see how Freud could be so confused with the relationship between a mother and a child, since his was full of tragedy and hearth ache. Eleven months after the birth of Sigmund, his mother Amalie gave birth to his brother Julius. "This new brother was Freud's first rival, a competitor who took his mother away from him when he was just eleven months old" (Breger 2000). So it is easy to see that for eleven glorious months Freud was center of his mother attention. She was able to devote her time, energy, and love to the young Sigmund. But upon the birth of his brother he was forced to share this paradise with another. Even though Julius died six to eight months after his birth, Amalie was not able to adequately show her love for Sigmund due to the depression and sadness naturally accompanying the death of a child (Breger 2000). Amalie went on to have 6 more children by the time Sigmund was ten years old.