"In particular, it is claimed that the family is NOT ALWAYS the warm loving institution painted by functionalists. The nuclear family is so small that it turns members in on themselves. If the family is functional, it is more functional for men than it is for women. Moreover, socialisation within the family is sometimes crippling for the personality of the child. The set roles that make up the family can be the arena of conflict rather than harmony."
- CIE, pg125-

ref: Parson's basic functions of the family - The manteinence of adult personalities:
"The family home is a haven where the pressures of the outside can be escaped. The parents can indulge in childish behavior through the children, for example, by playing with their toys. They can recharge their batteries and relax in a harmonious environment, free from strain and stress. This appears to be a function which services males, for the female rarely escapes her place of work to 'recharge' "
-CIE, pg 124-

"Within the family, the man is the bourgeois, and the wife represents the proletariat."
- Friedrich Engels, CIE pg 127- and immediately afer that line:
"In other words, the set-up of family, with the man having all the economic and legal power, is effectively a trap for women."

"Far from being the basis of a good society, the family, with it's narrow and tawdry secrets, is the source of all our discontents."
-Edmund Leach, CIE pg 130-

"According to Laing, the individual self, present at birth, has to be suppressed and controlled. The child learns to repress it's real self and present one that it's parents approve of. This then becomes the person, and the real self is 'murdered'. Parents, having killed off the real child, then proceed to subject the model child to an emotional network based on guilt and fear."
-CIE, pg131-

I think I like sociology.