The Ties That Bind and Burn: Navigating Family Drama and Complex Relationships
Perhaps the most enduring dichotomy. The Golden Child can do no wrong, their failures recast as learning experiences. The Scapegoat, often the most sensitive or perceptive member, absorbs all the family’s projected failures. In Succession , Kendall Roy is the tragic Scapegoat desperate to be the Golden Child, while Shiv oscillates between both poles. The drama emerges when the Scapegoat finally says, “It wasn’t me. It was always you.”
And in that silence—after the accusation, before the reply—you are writing about all of us.
