Hypostases and Transformarions of the Concept of the Father in Psychoanalysis

Abstract

The paper explores various psychoanalytic views on the role of the father in psychic life, in the development of an individual and society. The idea of the sacrifice of sexuality as the inevitable and tragic element of the oedipal structure is stressed. Mother’s and father’s functions in a child’s development are outlined. The differences in the understanding of the notion of the father by Freud, Lacan, Green, Mahler, Klein, Britton and others are discussed. The concept of the Third in contemporary psychoanalysis is outlined, theories of Thirdness by Benjamin and Ogden are compared.