Father Identity Research Articles

Authority as Perceived by the Schoolgoing Senegalese Adolescents

With the help of a questionnaire addressed to 882 Senegalese secondary students we have investigated their views of the ideal mother, ideal father, and ideal teacher. We also examined how they perceived their relationships with their teachers and the incidence of family and school environment. Starting from Tap's classification (1966), we have tried to show that love and confidence were the qualities most expected from mothers. On the other hand, characteristics such as authority, pedagogical preoccupations, and justice were expected from fathers. Contrary to Tap's findings (1966) for French subjects, gentleness was a quality given more for fathers than for mothers. Conversely mothers were expected by our subjects to be more dynamic than fathers which contrasts with Tap's results. The students value the moral or affective qualities of the ideal teachers much more than their intellectual qualities. The psychological traits of their actual teachers are described in a rather severe manner; unfavourable answers are more frequent. The prestige of the teacher seems to be still high; they are highly respected in the family circles of 81% of the students. Although the relationships are unequal between parents and teachers intellectually, contacts between them are highly desirable for 75% of the students.

Intergenerational Change in Ethnic Identity in the Puerto Rican Family

This research focuses upon intergenerational changes in ethnic identity within the family. The analysis is guided by the theoretical postulate that ethnic identity is influenced by receptivity to external influences stemming from the host society and by length of exposure to the new host environment. Findings indicate that both education and age at arrival have significant independent effects upon the ethnic identity of mothers, fathers and children and that the child's education and age at arrival are significantly and independently related to changes in ethnic identity in the family.

Gay Fathers: How and Why They Disclose Their Homosexuality to Their Children

Data collected by depth interviews reveal that many gay fathers disclose their homosexuality to their children. All but one subject reported that their children accepted them as homosexuals. Often the disclosure had the effect of deepening the father-child relationship. Gay fathers tend to be discreet regarding the overt expression of their homosexuality in order to protect their children from other people's hostility. Some gay fathers do not disclose their homosexuality to their children. Nondisclosure may cause the father considerable stress, depending upon the intimacy of the father-child relationship and the centrality of the father identity to the man.

The Ideal Father

Back to table of contents Previous article Next article ArticleNo AccessThe Ideal FatherJAMES L. STINNETTJAMES L. STINNETTSearch for more papers by this authorPublished Online:1 Apr 2006https://doi.org/10.1176/ajp.135.8.997-aAboutSectionsPDF/EPUB ToolsAdd to favoritesDownload CitationsTrack Citations ShareShare onFacebookTwitterLinked InEmail "The Ideal Father." American Journal of Psychiatry, 135(8), pp. 997-a–998 Access content To read the fulltext, please use one of the options below to sign in or purchase access. Personal login Institutional Login Sign in via OpenAthens Purchase Save for later Item saved, go to cart PPV Articles - American Journal of Psychiatry $35.00 Add to cart PPV Articles - American Journal of Psychiatry Checkout Please login/register if you wish to pair your device and check access availability. Not a subscriber? Subscribe Now / Learn More PsychiatryOnline subscription options offer access to the DSM-5 library, books, journals, CME, and patient resources. This all-in-one virtual library provides psychiatrists and mental health professionals with key resources for diagnosis, treatment, research, and professional development. Need more help? PsychiatryOnline Customer Service may be reached by emailing [email protected] or by calling 800-368-5777 (in the U.S.) or 703-907-7322 (outside the U.S.). FiguresReferencesCited byDetailsCited byNone Volume 135Issue 8 August 1978Pages 997-a-998 Metrics PDF download History Published online 1 April 2006 Published in print 1 August 1978

Parental symbolism in the doctor image of asthmatic patients.

In a group of asthmatic adult subjects (n = 88) the maternal and paternal aspects in the doctor image have been invesigated. The Semantic Differential Parental, an item list consisting of 18 paternal and 18 maternal items, was employed. With this item list the following concepts were scored: the doctor, the father, the ideal father, the mother, and the ideal mother. In the formation of the doctor image, the contribution of maternal and paternal qualities were both qualitatively as well as quantitatively studied and compared with the parental images. The acquired data are interpreted in comparison with the findings of former studies, with the same methodology, in groups of neurotic, schizophrenic and mixed psychosomatic patients. It appears that asthmatic patients consider the doctor mostly as a minimally differentiated omnipotent figure, possessing all parental qualities, but excelling by paternity, instrumental and nurturance functions. We notice a close likeness with the doctor image of the mixed group of psychosomatic patients. In contrast to neurotics, who project on the doctor more the norm giving pole of paternity and the receptivity pole of maternity, for asthmatics and psychosomatic patients in general the doctor figure is invested with the all-embracing power qualities of both parents.

Paternal and maternal symbolism in the parental images of psychosomatic and neurotic patients

This explorative study tends to elicit to what degree parental images of three subject groups: neurotic patients ( n = 158), psychosomatic patients ( n = 117) and healthy subjects ( n = 107)—can be viewed as a function of paternal and maternal symbolism. The Semantic Differential Parental (S.D.P.) an unipolar seven-step scale item list was employed. In this, 36 qualities reflect the main aspects of the paternal and maternal symbolic dimensions. Concepts offered for assessment were, among others, the father and mother images, both with a realistic and “ideal parent” appraisal. Our results suggest that psychosomatic patients do not differentiate between a separate paternal and maternal gestalt. In addition, their mother image on a real level appears more close to both the ideal father and ideal mother images. On the contrary, with neurotic patients the distinction between the paternal and the maternal symbolism and between real and ideal images determine to a large extent the experiencing of the concrete parental figures. Both the neurotic and the psychosomatic patients fail to conceptualize a maternal ideal image that is clearly distinct from the paternal ideal image. This seems based on too strong an emphasis with these subjects on the more general maternal aspects of caring and devotion in both ideal omages. Both patient groups seem to stress the active and self-giving values in the objects at the expense of the values of receptivity, empathy and closeness.

Clinical child psychology in France

tions with the mother image, presented as castrating and overwhelming. Aggressivity directed towards her is more easily verbalized or expressed in an infantile manner, but the feeling of guilt remains very strong. As in the Rorschach, identifications are ambiguous: Alain readily identifies himself with a woman, but his desire for virile identification is strong. On the whole, all the themes are dramatized. The very acute conflicts with parental images entirely block his future prospects. At present, the only possible conclusions are failure, death or compensation is precarious: it leads him to endless and purposeless themes of war and air battles that are concerned with objects only, for Alain was unable to introduce any hero character. Summary. The variety of symptoms, the family data, and the very particular personality of the mother lead one to think of reactions of opposition. Beside these symptoms, Alain's ego resorts to an obsessional type of organization, the defenses having a positive and strengthening value for the personality. This case is particularly interesting insofar as it shows the interaction of an uncommon family history and the need to resolve the conflicts of adolescence at the level of identifications and the choice of an ego ideal. Torn between the mother's desires that he make his career in either music or sports, Alain searched in the imaginary world (overemphasizing war and aviation) for an ideal father image that would enable him to sublimate his forbidden agressive drives. His final choice of sports represented a satisfactory compromise which integrated his mother's wishes for him and his own acknowledgement of the body in reference to the father's work.

STUDY OF A FANTASY OF RAPE IN AN ADOLESCENT

In this paper the author has studied the consequences which sexual trauma effected by the father can produce on the organization of the ego of young girls at the age of puberty. The author arrives at the conclusion that the damage caused is as profoundly severe as if the young girls experienced a bad mother-child relationship. Finally, this article underlines the transference on to the psychotherapist of an ideal father viewed by the adolescent girls as a powerful personage upon whom they can project their Oedipal desires without danger of incestuous complicity. The reference to such an ideal father is equally essential to the liberation from the destructive mother by whom these young girls are more than ever in danger of being engulfed, after a history of rape by the real father.

Legitimacy and Paternity Among the Hehe

Among the Hehe, a Bantu tribe numbering about 52,000 in the Tanganyika Territory in East Africa, clan membership and consequent social attributes are derived patrilineally. If the mother is unmarried, the physical father customarily becomes her husband and hte child's social father. If the mother is married and the paternity of the husband is questioned, the identity of the physical father is sought; and, if determined, the physical father must, after makin the necessary payments, assume the full functions of paternity; otherwise, if not identified, the husband acts as social father. The child thus does not lack a social father, and his status is not affected by the irregularity of his birth. There is, therefore, no illegitimacy among the Hehe. Cultural values condition this result: unchastity evokes little social disapproval, children are universally desired, and the child receives full status without any conflict of social forces.

Art. VI.—Māham Anaga

This lady was one of Akbar's nurses, and is said to have watched over him from the cradle to the throne. She must have been a notable woman, for she acquired great influence over Akbar, and was for a time the administratrix of his kingdom. It was in great measure through her intrigues that Akbar emancipated himself from the control of Bairām Khān. There has long been a mystery about her status and about the paternity of her children. She had two sons, Bāqī Khān Kōka and Adham Khān Kōka, but their father's name is never mentioned. Abū'l - faẓl, Niẓāmu - d - dīn, Badāōnī, and other writers, always speak of them as the sons of Māham Anaga, but give no hint as to their father's identity. Hence Mr. Blochmann concluded that Adham Khān, the more celebrated of the two, was “doubtless a royal bastard.” Professor Dowson demurs to this view on account of the great respect with which Māham Anaga is always spoken of, but admits that there is a mystery about the paternity. If, however, an illuminated MS. in the possession of Colonel Hanna is to be trusted, the mystery is cleared up, for its author states that Māham Anaga was the wife of Nadīm Khwāja Kōka, the sherbet-provider (sharbat-bardār) or butler of Humāyūn. The statement occurs at p. 9b of the MS., in telling the story (also given in the Akbarnāma) of how Akbar, while still an infant, comforted his nurse Jījī Anaga.