In the Name of the Father

This is a vast topic, but this one day series of talks we will touch on some of our speakers’ fascinating experiences of fathers and insights into the role. And we are inviting our audience of psychotherapists to think freshly about new types of fathers and the identities that men are now expected to occupy, many of which are ambiguous, shifting and contradictory. How does the contemporary father, caught in a multiplicity of roles, position himself in relation to society, his children, his own father, or even priest? Do boys still struggle to draw the mother’s love away from the ‘potent father’ and take his place? How does the boy come to identify or dis-identify with the father, both as a symbol of power but also manifestation of uncertainty? Where are men now located within the terms of patriarchy, authority and power, in terms of presence and absence? These are bold questions, but we hope to open up the beginnings of a meaningful conversation about this important domain of life and the consulting room.