Father Absence and the developement of the male self through Freud and Chodorow's theories.

In Freud's psychoanalytical analysis of the self, as well as Nancy Chodorow's theory of object-relations, the father plays a strong role in the development of male identity. The Oedipus theory explains that the need of a father is to create enough anxiety in a boy to help the boy to separate from the mother and identify with the father. The boy's fear of the father in accordance with his pre-Oedipal love interest in the mother …

…of the self as a male, the absence can be detrimental to the development of a boy and create many stigmas that will remain with the boy for life. Works Cited: Chodorow, Nancy. The Reproduction of Mothering. California: University of California Press, 1978 Shill, Merton. "TAT Measures of Gender Identity (Castration Anxiety)." University of Michigan Journal of Personal Assessment 42.5 (1981) : 136-146 Minsky, Rosalin. "Beyond Nurture: Finding the Words for Male Identity" Journal of Psychoanalytic Studies Vol. 2 No. 3 (2000)