Absent or missing fathers and male sexual difficulties : their manifestations in dream symbolism and interpretation

Abstract

This thesis uses the individual case method in order to demonstrate the effects of paternal deprivation including variations in patterns of inadequate fathering on a male's psychological and sexual development. More specifically, it shows that father absence is a highly significant factor in the development of serious male psychological and social difficulties. Much of the material in the text concerns the impact of father absence on male 'sex-role' development. It is, as such further concerned with showing that paternal deprivation can lead to conflicts and rigidities in the individual's sex-role adjustment, which, in turn, are frequently related to deficits in emotional, cognitive and interpersonal functioning. Due consideration is given to such family characteristics as the mother's response to the father's absence which generally manifests as pathological and debilitating intrusiveness on the affected son's masculine identity. Other family features considered are the role of older male siblings and father substitutes e.g. stepfathers in the amelioration or exacerbation of these difficulties. An assumption is made that where such substitutes are competent father absence per se can have no more than a limited influence on the son's sex role development and vice versa. Some dreams from the case are presented for the purpose of viewing how the considered difficulties manifest in dream symbolism. Attention is paid also to the question as to whether such dreams can provide any useful clues toward an understanding of the nature, type and psychological situatedness of the affected people. Consequently, a discussion of a psychotherapy attempt is made to show that a competent understanding and interpretation of such symbolism will have an invaluable healing benefit on these difficulties.