‘90s FAMILY : Sibling Revelry Hides Real Problems

What’s On: “Frasier,” a half-hour comedy broadcast Thursday nights at 9:30 on NBC.

Family Portrait: Frasier Crane is a Seattle psychiatrist who hosts a radio call-in show. His live-in family consists of his father, a crotchety cop retired on disability, and his father’s eccentric, possibly psychic caretaker, Daphne. Also living in Seattle is Frasier’s younger brother, Niles, a jittery little package of neuroses who’s also a psychiatrist.

Back Story: The brothers fancy themselves very different: Frasier is a Freudian, Niles a Jungian. Frasier is unhappily divorced, Niles is enmeshed in a marriage to a bizarre but wealthy woman. Yet the two men are virtual twins: Supercilious, high-strung intellectuals who banter in bon mots about their Italian shoes, knowledge of German opera and appreciation of African art.

Fuse Time: The brothers are fiercely competitive. When Niles, desperate to fulfill his dream of being published, persuades Frasier to help him write a book about sibling relationships, their lifelong rivalry is laid bare. And it isn’t pretty.

Telling Quote: “I’m just fed up with being second all the time,” Niles screams just before the fisticuffs begin. “I wanted to be a psychiatrist like Mom way before you did. But because you were older, you got there first. . . . By the time I get around to doing anything, it’s all chewed meat!”

Prescription Pad: “Frasier” plays the Crane brothers’ hostility for laughs, but that hostility is rooted in a real issue. The feeling of competition and resentment develops in childhood as siblings vie for their parents’ love, said Dr. Rosalyn Laudati, a psychologist who practices in Brea and Newport Beach.

That’s not where it ends, however. “Sibling rivalry never dies,” she said. The Crane brothers have intensified the rivalry by taking up the same profession, a situation Laudati sees frequently. Sometimes, sibling rivalry dissipates as people grow up, she said. “If people have achieved their goals and are satisfied with their lives, there’s less chance that sibling rivalry will get worse,” she said. “But if they’re at midlife, and they’re unhappy . . . that can breed more resentment toward the other.”

With their training, the Cranes could try to undo the knot of brotherly envy. But they would be a rare case, Laudati said: “Adults are rarely motivated to work on this with their sibs unless there’s a crisis.”

* Media Monitor examines the family issues raised in current films, books and television shows. It appears on the ‘90s Family page.