The absent father effect is a love story, but an unrequited one. Harm is done due to the presence of his absence, affecting a daughter—and the father–in body, mind, and soul. For many reasons, the father is an essential aspect of the psyche and significant for the daughter’s psychological and physical life expressed personally and culturally. Topics of the psyche affected by the absent father include the negative father complex, puella archetype and examining the dated concept of the animus. Paradoxically, the focus on the bleaker side of daughters and fathers’ relationship in order to shed light on the lack, symptoms and problems, as well as the repair and hope. Absence is a presence to be filled.
Objectives:
- Understand the effects of the absent father from the perspective of Jungian analytical psychology
- Discover how to recognize the negative father complex
- Describe the absent father transgenerational issues and effects personally and culturally
Books:
- Samuels, A. (1985). The Father
- Zojia, L. (2018).The Father: Historical, Psychological and Cultural Perspectives
- Jung, C.G. Collected Works 4. ‘The Father in the Destiny of the Individual’
Statement on clinical practice: The presentation brings awareness of the father figure as influential from the beginning of life as well as how he appears or is absent in the transference and countertransference.
