What do fathers really do? What function do they achieve in a child’s life? How do fatherless children fundamentally differ from those that are fathered?  How boys are affected vs how girls are affected.

Based on the works of Mahler, Lacan, jung, Chodorow and Winnicot, this article that explores how our fathers have unconsciously affected our values, beliefs and behaviors. The implications for family, society and therapy.

 ———-its coming soon——ok, I’ve started writing a little —-and hope to complete it little by little———

What do Saddam Hussain, Jeffery Dahmer, Charles Manson, Adolph Hitler and Jack the Ripper have in common? They were all raised in households where the father was either absent, or had little influence.

The word fatherless conjures up an image of a father who is dead and gone, or a deadbeat dad who absconds from law, and the child’s life in order to save on child support payments. That is a concrete form of fatherlessness, one that cannot be negated, nor denied. Paradoxically, in my opinion this kind of fatherlessness is most benign. There are other, more subtle levels of fatherlessnesses experienced by children and these can be as damaging, if not more, than the actual, physical absence of the father. This is the father who is inattentive, neglectful, narcissistic, self absorbed, disconnected, exploitatory, insensitive or even one who lacks influence and the vigour that is associated with masculinity, a father castrated and rendered powerless and impotent by the Terrible mother, or environmental circumstances.

In a backdrop provided by the seminal names of Lacan, Margaret Mahler, Melanie Klein, Nancy Chodorow, and Donald Winnicot, this paper explores the psyche of children permanently damaged by these states of fatherlessness. The implications of such a phenomenon on the society, on world peace, on healthcare and treatment are explored.