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Both in the structure of our society and in the inner life of its members there has been, in recent times, a disturbing decrease in the influence of the father. What is the significance of this phenomenon? Is it a change for the better or the worse? What are we to do about it? Any writer who attempts to deal seriously with this problem deserves our attention. This book on the subject—'a contribution to social psychology'—was written in 1963 by an eminent German psychoanalyst, and has now been translated by Eric Mosbacher.
According to Mitscherlich the industrial revolution and specialization of labour have lessened the effect of the father in two ways: first, he no longer works at home, with the consequence that his children are denied both his presence and his ability to teach them the techniques of his trade; second, father-figures in the community are replaced by non-human authority in the shape of bureaucratic organization—residues of paternalism remain, but are archaic and less meaningful than in the past. In these circumstances the child matures without a firmly established inner guide derived from identification with a respected father and, adrift in society, his only means of survival is to regress to passive dependence on the provisions of the mother-state.
The dispersal of the primary group as a result of the division of labour, responsibility and power has impoverished the capacity for differentiated intellectual and emotional contact and the development of an affectionate or stimulating atmosphere. Behaviour at home too is passive and anaclitic, dependent on the provision of material that provides the illusion of escape; the demand thus created is sufficient for the industry that caters for this need, in this case the information and fiction industry.
Mitscherlich is less coherent about the advantages brought about by the recession of paternalism, but believes that a lessening of authoritarianism in education would give the child an opportunity to d