The Father ― Historical, Psychological and Cultural Perspectives

Countless children throughout the world grow up without fathers. In this revised and updated edition of The Father, accompanied by a new preface, Luigi Zoja studies the reasons for this and assesses the contribution of this phenomenon to social and psychological problems.

Using examples from classical antiquity to the present day, Zoja views the origins and evolution of the father from a Jungian perspective. He argues that the father’s role in bringing up children is a social construction that has been subject to change throughout history, and goes on to examine the consequences and consider the crisis facing fatherhood today. No other existing book faces the subject of fatherhood from such a broad and multidisciplinary perspective. Covering these issues from historical, sociological and psychological points of view, this revised edition of The Father includes a complete reworking of the final part of the book, focusing on the condition of the father in today’s globalized world, and with a particular look at the role historical trauma and grief play in family relationships.

The book will be of special interest to analytical psychologists and Jungian psychotherapists in practice and in training, academics and students of Jungian and post-Jungian studies, sociology, anthropology, gender studies, and history.

Luigi Zoja is an analytical psychologist in private practice in Milan who lectures internationally. He is a former training analyst of the C. G. Jung Institut, Zurich, past president of CIPA (Centro Italiano di Psicologia Analitica) and former president of IAAP (International Association of Analytical Psychology). He has taught at the University of Insubria and at Beijing Normal University, and his previous books have been published in many languages.