POSTPONED – Rethinking Absent Fathers

Today this theory is considered heterocentric, westernised and outdated, and contested in research. However, the ‘absent father phenomenon’ remains a pertinent area of exploration in therapeutic theory and practice. How can we think about the ’absent father’ in a more meaningful and contemporary way, while holding in mind what might remain relevant from earlier psychoanalytic theory for understanding clients’ unconscious processes?  

In this conference, we will hear from a range of speakers exploring ‘absent fathers’ from diverse social, personal and analytical angles. This will include exploring the complex and intergenerational impact of absent fathers in black families; the cultural legacy of war; the impact of illness and death as well a focus on daughters’ experiences of fathers’ ‘emotional deadness’ through a Jungian perspective.   

Through both clinical and personal perspectives, the speakers will offer ideas and reflections on how to work with clients who have experienced physically and psychologically ‘absent fathers’ or other absent primary caregivers. This will include how Bowlby’s concepts of ‘relational presence’ and ‘relational absence’ may provide a reparative experience in psychotherapy, as well as how drawing on archetypal and collective symbols can be a route to healing in depth analytical approaches. We will finish with a Q&A between the participants and all speakers, focusing on considerations for clinical practice, such as working with loss and dislocation, transferential complexities, reparation and individuation.