Finding One's Father
The Mother's Contribution to Early Father Representations
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 20325932 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Richard N Atkins (Division of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, State University of New York–Downstate Medical Center., corresponding author) |
| Year | 1981 |
| Volume | 9 |
| Issue | 4 |
| Pages | 539-559 |
| Publication date | 1981-10-01 |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Journal of the American Academy of Psychoanalysis (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0090-3604 • E-ISSN: 1943-2860 |
| Publisher | Guilford Publications (PUBLISHER • US) |
| DOI | 10.1521/jaap.1.1981.9.4.539 |
| PMID | 7298409 |
| OpenAlex | W2415798398 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 3 |
| References cited | 4 |
The attachment of psychic meaning to relationships emerges in pre-oedipal life through the epigenesis of the representational world. The mother-child dyad is traditionally understood as the prototype of all subsequent one-to-one relationships, including to the father. However, developmental research data suggest that a child, even in optimal situations, has relatively little actual contact with the father in the first year of life. It is therefore suggested that father-representations derive from sources outside of the father-child dyad. The way a mother brings her youngster into contact with the father can catalyze or discolor the child's affective attachment to him. Mother can facilitate or retard the "other-directedness" of an infant in her husband's presence. During separation-individuation, the mother may affect father representations through her capacity to transitively vitalize or disenfranchise the father in his absence. Correlations from both clinical psychoanalytic work and infant-toddler observation are offered in support of these hypotheses
Developmental psychology · Psychoanalysis · Family Dynamics and Relationships · Psychology
| Citations per year | 0.08 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 1989 - 2009 (21) |
| Highly cited | No |