The role of the father in the development of psychosis

pages: 183-206

Abstract

In psychoanalysis, fathering has not received much analytical at­tention and only little is known about the actual impact of paternity on the development of certain psychopathology. This paper seeks to carefully examine and critically discuss the impact of fathering on psychotic individuals. It elaborates on the importance of the father in the healthy development of the children, as well as on the consequences that his absence entails for their psyche. Drawing on a Lacanian analytical framework, it is argued that, nowadays, the paternal figure has significantly lost its previous status. The gradual extinction of the paternal function, within the contemporary cultural environment, is mainly because of important social and legal changes in the familial structure, such as the increase of single-parent families and the legalization of the adoption of children by gay couples. Keywords: psychoanalysis, Jacques Lacan, psychosis, mental disorders, Sigmund Freud