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Gillie Gilbert
email: gilliegilbert@talktalk.net
tel: 0208 445 8424
The Archetype of the Father and the Body
In the name of the father, many things were done and said.
Some good, some bad, but the “father’s name” justified many of them. Good or bad.
In our contemporaneous society, the parent’s function has been changing.
In particular, the place of the father which, traditionally, has been in front
to protect his family when there is a crisis.
Usually, it is the father who stands as an interface between his family and the external world. However, the social values and the guiding marks of knowledge are turning upside
down and inverse in societies in general.
Some of the guidelines are too old and the new ones are not clear yet.
As a consequence, many adult people feel they lack an adequtre father figure.
Women have become much more active and present in professions and more affirmative
and assertive in relation to the man’s role in ancient society.
This, of course, significantly changes the dynamic between men and women.
Women have become more receptive to the animus -the masculine archetype within themselves, thus developing a more “masculine” side.
IN THE NAME OF THE FATHER
The name “father” speaks to all of us.
The real father and symbolic father.
Let’s say that the real one is the conceptive father and the symbolic one, a function.
The important “function of the father” can occupy different places and situations in our lives.
When the “father figure” is present for children, it provides a place of
security and grounding in their life.
When this quality is applied and lived in the world outside of the family, it
continues to provide a sense of grounding, affirmation and assertion.
When the father figure is adequately internalised the person will be open and
ready to create “connection” with others and the world at large.
It helps a person build important “bridges” in their life , including
the bridge between life and death.
When the function of the father is absent in the psyche of an individual, it leaves a deficit
in the inner sense of security that severely hinders the capacity to
simply “be there” and create vital connections.
The person experiences impotence and frustration and,
in extreme cases, a feeling of total abandonment.
Another possibility would be across the other side of the bridge, where we find
the extremes of life, and of being over in-charge of life.
The consequences of these extremes on the physical and subjective body are clear and go together with the behavior of being too contracted and contained, or collapsed and over open.
We may gain the presence of the father in our development, not only through his words
and presence but also from his body so that we feel it within our own body.
Someone who hasn't experienced this presence of the father will have a deficit of
feeling in their body and the consequences of this can have serious implications to their life.
The father's function is so important for us to develop our capacity
to create and experience “connection”.
Connection to what?
This connection is a deeply spiritual one between the law and the wish, the mean and the meant, the thought and the body, the symbolic and the imaginary.
To function healthily in the world we need “grounding”: the place of security, that naturally occurs from the presence of the symbolic father.