The Forgotten Parent No More: A Psychoanalytic Reconsideration of Fatherhood

A growing body of psychoanalytic research has supported an understanding of the father as an important and unique contributor to child development. Though Freud's ( 1900 /1961c, 1913 /1961f) original understanding of fathering emphasized the punitive and inhibiting aspects of paternal influence...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Psychoanalytic psychology 2000, Vol.17 (1), p.88-105
Main Authors: Liebman, Samuel J, Abell, Steven C
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Childhood Development
Experimentation
Father Child Relations
Human
Psychoanalytic Theory
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Summary:A growing body of psychoanalytic research has supported an understanding of the father as an important and unique contributor to child development. Though Freud's ( 1900 /1961c, 1913 /1961f) original understanding of fathering emphasized the punitive and inhibiting aspects of paternal influence, later theorists considered the more positive aspects of paternal involvement, such as the father's role in facilitating separation-individuation ( M. Mahler, F. Pine, and A. Bergman, 1975 ). More recently, P. Blos (1984) has proposed that the male adolescent's capacity to enter into mature relationships in adulthood rests on successful resolution of the pre-Oedipal father-child relationship, whereas Kohut's ( 1977 , 1984 ) work suggests that lifelong father hunger is best understood not as a pathological derivative of repression but rather as a universal part of normal development.
ISSN:0736-9735
1939-1331
DOI:10.1037/0736-9735.17.1.88