THE ECLIPSE OF THE FATHER

By Leonardo Boff Reprint | | Print |

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RIO DE JANEIRO, Sep 1 2004 (IPS) - The complex social division of labour, the participation of women in public life, and their harsh criticism of the patriarchy and machismo have thrown the father figure into crisis. In a sense, what has emerged is a fatherless society, or one in which the father is absent, writes Leonardo Boff, a Brazilian writer and theologian. In this article, Boff writes that the eclipse of the father figure has destabilised the traditional family. The increase in divorce brought with it considerable and at times dramatic consequences. According to recent official statistics from the US, 90 percent of children that run away from home come from fatherless families; 70 percent of juvenile crime is committed by youth from homes without fathers; 85 percent of juveniles in prison and 63 percent of juvenile suicides grow up without fathers. It is the father figure that provides an understanding of the difference between the world of the family and the social world, where there is not only well-being but also work; where there is both kindness and conflict; where there is both winning and losing. The absence of a father figure deprives children of structure, leaves them adrift, and erodes their desire to commit to a life plan. We have to bring the father back.

The complex social division of labour, the participation of women in public life, and their harsh criticism of the patriarchy and machismo have thrown the father figure into crisis. In a sense, what has emerged is a fatherless society, or one in which the father is absent.

The eclipse of the father figure, however, destabilised the traditional family. It must be recognised that the increase in divorce brought with it considerable and at times dramatic consequences. According to recent official statistics from the US, 90 percent of children that run away from home come from fatherless families; 70 percent of juvenile crime is committed by youth from homes without fathers; 85 percent of juveniles in prison and 63 percent of juvenile suicides grow up without fathers.

The absence of a father figure deprives children of structure, leaves them adrift, and erodes their desire to commit to a life plan. We have to bring the father back.

To restore the relevance of the father figure it is important to distinguish between the anthropological principle of the father and the models of the father, which vary according to time and culture, from patriarch, tyrant, participant, companion, to friend. The anthropological principle of the father is a permanent structure necessary to the complex process of human individuation which operates in all models, though without being exhausted in any. The crisis of the father models causes the father principle to take on new expressions.

The psychoanalytic tradition made clear the unique importance of the father as an anthropological principle. The figure of the father is responsible for the first and necessary rupture of the mother/child bond and the introduction of the child into the interpersonal world of siblings, relatives, and society.

In this other world there is order, discipline, authority, and limits. People have to work and complete projects; for this they need courage, a sense of security, and a willingness to make sacrifices.

The father is the symbolic personification of these qualities. He is the bridge to the interpersonal, social world, in the passage to which children orient themselves by the father-hero archetype who knows, can, and does. If they lack this reference, they feel insecure, lost, and without initiative. It is the father figure that provides an understanding of the difference between the world of the family and the social world, where there is not only well- being but also work; where there is both kindness and conflict; where there is both winning and losing.

If television shows fan desire by making people believe that the sky is the limit, it is the father who must show that there are always limits, that we are all incomplete and mortal. To teach this troublesome but vital lesson is to heed the call of the anthropological principle of the father, without which a child would be permanently damaged.

From a well-realised father figure, the child can build a positive image of God the Father. Despite the difficulties, there is never a lack of father figures that we know who are immunised against the patriarchal mentality and live with dignity within the complex modern world, work hard, fulfil their duties as fathers, and show determination and responsibility. In this manner they fulfil their symbolic, archetypical function for their children, which is indispensable for them to mature without trauma and confusion, grow autonomous, and finally become mothers and fathers themselves. (END/COPYRIGHT IPS)