When the Father Is Passive

This paper reviews some of the literature and research on the father'S role in the boy'S development of masculinity, or gender identity, through identification. Focus is on the particular impact of the absent or passive father on such identification. This author concurs with those theoreticians who recognize that the impact of the father on the boy'S development of masculinity long antedates the Oedipal period. A clinical case is used throughout to (a) illustrate the negative effects on all three aspects of gender identity and, consequently, on the patient'S life; and (b) to emphasize the importance of not minimizing the father'S role in the child'S life and of not relegating it to a subordinate position to that of the mother. This has implications for society and for treatment of both individuals and families.