Reflections on the father functions for the insertion of the child in shared reality based on Winnicott

Abstract

This article proposes a reflection on the father function, based on Winnicot’s theory. The father function is important above all to deal with the external environment for the mother, so she can dedicate herself to being the baby’s environment. The father can participate on this mother function, and eventually even fully take on this responsibility, if another person takes on the father function for him. Besides this holding from the mother, the father function consists in contributing to the insertion of the infant in culture, strengthening the role of the mother-object in this sense; being an external identification to the dyad mother-child; participating of the environment that will be affirmed based on concern; surviving to the aggressiveness of the son; orienting the son amidst the shared reality; contributing to the acquisition and creative acceptance of normativity, and to the formation of a false self that is porous and non-inhibiting of the self’s spontaneity.