One of the most frequent complaints for which students seek advice at counselling centres is a crisis occurring towards the end of a prolonged academic education. Symptoms are incapability of working, loss of orientation, and fear of failing in professional life. This crisis is traced back to a childhood experience specific for this generation of students: the return of their defeated and powerless hero-fathers to the hitherto fatherless family. The conflicts arising from that situation are frequently solved by depreciation of the father-figure, and the resulting negative identification then blocks the way to sexual and social identity.