Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Reconsidering Psychoanalytic Notions of Paternal and Maternal Roles in Situations of Father-Absence

Journal of Contemporary Psychotherapy Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Cite this article

Abstract

Traditional psychoanalytic literature describes the father as occupying a critical role in child development. The father’s loss or absence is seen as hindering development from early infancy throughout childhood and even into adulthood. Father absence is defined as any situation where the father is psychologically disconnected from his children, whether or not he is currently living in the same home. Dramatic shifts have occurred in the American family over the past several decades, which have resulted in changes for both the father and mother’s role in child development. With the increasing divorce rate and rise in single parenthood, father-absence has become common, and a multiplicity of family forms has emerged. However, psychoanalytic ideas regarding maternal and paternal roles have not been modified to encompass these changing family forms. Research is beginning to show that children can develop in families that are not the traditional mother-father unit. Two case examples are provided to examine various factors related to unresolved separation-individuation issues, and how psychoanalytic ideas regarding the paternal and maternal functions can be used in either a modified or unmodified manner in organizing the clinical material.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Abelin, E. (1971). The role of the father in separation-individuation. In J. McDevitt, & C. F. Settlage (Eds.), Essays in honor of Margaret Mahler (pp. 229–252). NY: International Universities Press, Inc.

    Google Scholar 

  • Abelin, E. (1975). Some further observations and comments on the earliest role of the father. International Journal of Psychoanalysis, 56, 293–302.

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Abelin, E. (1980). Triangulation, the role of the father and the origin of core gender identity during the rapprochement subphase. In R. F. Lax, S. Bach, & J. A. Burland (Eds.), Rapprochement: The critical subphase of separation-individuation (pp. 151–169). New York: Jason Aronson.

    Google Scholar 

  • Altus, W. D. (1958). The broken home and factors of adjustment. Psychological Reports, 4, 477–485.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bach, G. (1946). Father-fantasies and father-typing in father-separated children. Child Development, 38, 243–250.

    Google Scholar 

  • Beaty, L. (1995). Effects of paternal absence on male adolescents’ peer relations and self-image. Adolescence, 30(120), 873–880.

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Beck, A. T., Sethi, B. B., & Tuthill, R. N. (1963). Childhood bereavement and adult depression. Archives of General Psychiatry, 9, 295–302.

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Biller, H. B., & Kimpton (1997). The father and the school-aged child. In M. E. Lamb (Ed.), The role of the father in child development (3rd ed., pp. 143–161). New York: Wiley.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bishop, J., Lane, R. (2000). Father absence and the attitude of entitlement. Journal of Contemporary Psychotherapy, 30(1), 105–117.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Blankenhorn, D. (1995). Fatherless America. New York: Harper Perennial.

    Google Scholar 

  • Blos, P. (1967). The second individuation process of adolescence. The Psychoanalytic Study of the Child, 22, 162–186.

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Booth, M. Z. (1996). Parental availability and academic achievement among Swazi rural primary school children. Comparative Educational Review, 40(3), 250–263.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Brook, J. S., Whitman, M., & Gordon, A. S. (1985). Father absence, perceived family characteristics and stage of drug use in adolescence. British Journal of Developmental Psychology, 3, 87–94.

    Google Scholar 

  • Clark, A., Vandell, D., McCartney, K., Owen, M., & Booth, C. (2000). Effects of parental separation and divorce on very young children. Journal of Family Psychology, 14(2), 304–326.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Daum, J. (1983). Father’s absence and moral development of male delinquents. Psychological Reports, 54, 223–228.

    Google Scholar 

  • Davids, M. F. (2002). Fathers in the internal world. In J. Trowell, & A. Etchegoyen (Eds.), The importance of fathers: A psychoanalytic re-evaluation (pp. 67–92). Brunner/Routledge.

  • Dienhart, A. (1998). Reshaping fatherhood. Thousand Oaks: Sage Publications.

    Google Scholar 

  • Drexler, P. (2001). Moral reasoning in sons of lesbians and heterosexual parent families: The Oedipal period of development. Gender and Psychoanalysis, 6(1), 19–51.

    Google Scholar 

  • Drexler, P. (2006). The new family tree: Lesbian, gay, parenting, boys, Latency, Oedipal conflicts, gender development, masculine identity. Journal of Infant, Child, and Adolescent Psychotherapy, 5(2), 240–256.

    Google Scholar 

  • East, L., Jackson, D., & O’Brien, L. (2006). Father absence and adolescent development: a review of the literature. Journal of Child Health Care, 10(4), 283–295.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Esman, A. H. (1980). Adolescent psychopathology and the rapprochement process. In R. F. Lax, S. Bach, & J. Alexis Burland (Eds.), Rapprochement: The critical subphase of separation-individuation (pp. 285–297). New York: Jason Aranson.

    Google Scholar 

  • Esman, A. H. (1982). Fathers and adolescent sons. In Stanely H. Cath, Alan R. Gurwitt, & John M. Ross (Eds.), Father and child (Chap. 17, pp. 265–273). Boston: Little Brown & Company.

    Google Scholar 

  • Freud, S. (1927). The future of an illusion. In J. Strachey (Ed. and Trans.), The standard edition of the complete works of Sigmund Freud (Vol. 21, pp. 3–56). London: Hogarth Press, 1961.

  • Freud, A., & Burlingham, D. T. (1943). War and children. Medical War Books.

  • Glueck, S., & Glueck, E. (1950). Unraveling Juvenile Delinquency. Harvard University Press.

  • Greenson, R. (1954). The struggle against identification. Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association, 2, 200–217.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Herzog, J. M. (2001). Father hunger. London: The Analytic Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hetherington, E. M. (1998). What matters? What does not? Five perspectives on the association between marital transitions and children’s adjustment. American Psychologist, 53, 167–184.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Jones, K. A., & Benda, B. B. (2004). Alcohol use among adolescents: A study of non resident fathers, assets, and deficits. Alcoholism Treatment Quarterly, 22(1), 3–25.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Juby, H., & Farrington, D. (2001). Distinguishing the link between disrupted families and delinquency. British Journal of Criminology, 41(1), 22–40.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kohut, H. (1977). The restoration of the self. International Universities Press, Inc.

  • Lamb, M. E. (1987). The emergent American father. In M. Lamb (Ed.), The father’s role: Cross-cultural perspectives (pp. 3–25). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lamb, M. E. (1997). The development of father-infant relationships. In M. E. Lamb (Ed.), The role of the father in child development (pp. 104–120). New York: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

    Google Scholar 

  • Liebman, S. J., & Abell, S. C. (2000). The forgotten parent no more: a psychoanalytic reconsideration of fatherhood. Psychoanalytic Psychology, 17(1), 88–105.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Loewald, H. W. (1951). Ego and reality. International Journal of Psychoanalysis, 32, 10–18.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mahler, M. S., & Gosliner, B. J. (1955). On symbiotic child psychosis: Genetic, dynamic and restitutive aspects. The Psychoanalytic Study of the Child, 10, 195–212.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mahler, M. S., Pine, F., & Bergman, A. (1975). The psychological birth of the human infant. NY: Basic Books, Inc.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mander, G. (2001). Fatherhood today: variations on a theme. Psychodynamic Counseling, 7(2), 141–158.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Masterson, J. F. (1988). The search for the real self. NY: The Free Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • McLoyd, V. C. (1998). Socioeconomic disadvantage and child development. American Psychologist, 53, 185–204.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Miller, T. (1984). Paternal absence and its effects on adolescent self-esteem. International Journal of Social Psychiatry, 30, 293–296.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Mitchell, D., & Wilson, W. (1967). Relationship of father absence to masculinity and popularity of delinquent boys. Psychological Reports, 20, 1173–1174.

    Google Scholar 

  • Najman, J. M., Behrens, B. C., Anderson, M., Bor, W., O’Callaghan, M., & Williams, G. M. (1997). Impact of family type and family quality on child behavior problems: A longitudinal study. Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 36(10), 1357–1365.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Parish, T., & Taylor, J. C. (1979). The impact of divorce and subsequent father absence on children’s and adolescent’s self-concepts. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 8, 427–432.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Phares, V. (1992). Where’s Poppa? The relative lack of attention to the role of fathers in child and adolescent psychopathology. American Psychologist, 47(5), 656–664.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Pleck, J. H. (1997). Paternal involvement: Levels, sources, and consequences. In M. E. Lamb (Ed.), The role of the father in child development (3rd ed., pp. 66–103). New York: Wiley.

    Google Scholar 

  • Popenoe, D. (1996). Life without father. New York: The Free Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ross, J. M. (1982). Mentorship in middle childhood. In Stanely H. Cath, Alan R. Curwitt, & John M. Ross (Eds.), Father and child (Chap. 15, pp. 243–252). Boston: Little Brown & Company.

    Google Scholar 

  • Pruett, K. D. (1987). The nurturing father. New York: Warner Books, Inc.

    Google Scholar 

  • Pruett, K. D. (1998). Research perspectives: Role of the father. Pediatrics, 102(5), 1253–1261.

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Pruett, K. D. (2000). Fatherneed. New York: The Free Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rutter, M. (1979). Maternal deprivation 1972–1978: New findings, new concepts, new approaches. Child Development, 50, 283–305.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Seligman, E. (1982). The half-alive ones. Journal of Analytical Psychology, 27, 1–20.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Seplin, C. D. (1952). A study of the influence of the father’s absence for military service. Smith College Studies in Social Work, (abstract, Vol. 22, pp. 123–124).

  • Silvertein, L. B., & Auerbach, C. F. (1999). Deconstructing the essential father. American Psychologist, 54(6), 397–407.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Stolz, L. M. (1954). Father relations of war born children. Stanford: Stanford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Target, M., & Fonagy, P. (2002). Fathers in modern psychoanalysis and in society. In J. Trowell & A. Etchegoyen (Eds.), The importance of fathers: A psychoanalytic re- evaluation (pp. 45–66). Brunner/Routledge.

  • UNICEF (2007). Child poverty in perspective: An overview of child well-being in rich countries. Retrieved from http://www.unicef-irc.org/.

  • Winnicott, W. D. (1960). The theory of the parent–infant relationship. In W. D. Winnicott (Ed.), The maturational processes and the facilitating environment: Studies in the theory of emotional development (pp. 37–55). NY: International Universities Press, Inc.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Social Work, University of Arkansas at Little Rock, 2801 S. University, Little Rock, AR, 72204, USA

    Kim A. Jones

Authors
  1. Kim A. Jones
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Kim A. Jones.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and Permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Jones, K.A. Reconsidering Psychoanalytic Notions of Paternal and Maternal Roles in Situations of Father-Absence. J Contemp Psychother 38, 205–213 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10879-008-9077-1

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10879-008-9077-1

Keywords

search

Navigation