The Importance of Fathers: A Psychoanalytic Re-evaluation edited by Judith Trowell and Alicia Etchegoyen. The New Library of Psychoanalysis. Published in association with the Institute of Psycho-analysis by  Brunner-Routledge, London, 2002;  256 pages; £17.99 paperback.

The book is a collection of papers apparently written especially for this book (there are no references to indicate they have been published elsewhere). The contributors, mostly well-known, work in some context within the health/social services with children and adolescents. It is worth listing them to give you an idea of the spread of subjects and thinking: Martin Baily, Kate Barrows, Paul Barrows, Dr Suzanne Blundell, Dr Abraham Brafman, Dr Ronald Britton, M. Fakhry Davids, Ricky Emanuel, Dr Alicia Etchegoyen, Denis Flynn, Professor Peter Fonagy, Dr Marcus Johns, Dr Maureen Marks, Anton Obholzer, Dr Mary Target, Dr Judith Trowell, Dr Clifford Yorke and Biddy Youell.

It seems that, while there are a number of individual papers on the subject of fathers, there are not many books. On the other hand, Dr Obholzer's opening sentence: ‘It is now approximately a hundred years since Freud expressed his seminal views on the role of father. The time is ripe for a revisiting of the topic’ (p. xv), caused my heart to sink a bit. The public seem to have been well aware of ‘the ripeness’ of this topic for many years, having