The father : historical, psychological, and cultural perspectives

Orig. pub. in Italian as Il gesto di ettore: preistoria, storia, attualita e scomparsa del padre, Bollato Boringhieri, Torino, 2000.. English translation by Henry Martin.

Part 1 - Prehistory. 1 The mammals: the animals' retreat from fatherhood. 2 The sexuality of the great apes. 3 The prehistoric horizon of the father. 4 The paternal revolution. 5 Lucy grows. Part 2 - Myth and the classical age. 6 Patriarchy and matriarchy. 7 The historic horizon of the father. 8 The mythic origins of the father. 9 Hector. 10 Ulysses. 11 The myth of the father as the sole progenitor. 12 Aeneas. Part 3 - Towards modern times and decadence. 13 From the Roman father, to the Son, to the French Revolution. 14 From the French Revolution to the Industrial Revolution. 15 The disenchantment of war. 16 The reversal of the public father. 17 The voyage of the Joads. Part 4 - The father today. 18 The rarefaction of the father. 19 The abdication of the father: in flight toward the past. 20 The abdication of the father: in flight toward the future. 21 The disappearance of elevation. 22 The breadwinner. 23 The search for the father. Par5 5 - A final reflection. 24 A final reflection

'Countless children throughout the world grow up without fathers. [This book] studies the reasons for this and assesses the contribution of this phenomenon to social and psychological problems. Using images of the father from classical antiquity to the present day, Luigi Zoja views the origins and evolution of the father from a Jungian perspective. He argues that the father's role in bringing up children is a social construction that has been subject to change throughout history. The author examines the consequences of this, and considers the crisis facing fatherhood today....no other existing book faces the subject of fatherhood from such a broad and multi-disciplinary perspective.'

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