Soumrak otců - Archetyp otce a dějiny otcovství – Zoja Luigi (2022)

Essays by a leading Jungian psychoanalyst examine the archetype of the father and the phenomenon of fatherhood from many angles. Motherhood has an instinctive, bodily foundation, while fatherhood is a cultural and social product. It is only with the emergence of the man-father that one can speak of the formation of family and society. In the realm of mammals, the strongest males, victorious in the battle for females, do sire offspring, but they have no special relationship with them. The biological and cultural aspects continually clash in the man-father, creating what is known as the paternal paradox: towards family and offspring, a father is to be kind and protective, while towards the world, he is to be conquering and victorious. The author traces the diverse manifestations and transformations of the father archetype in the socio-cultural history of Western civilization from antiquity through the early days of Christianity, the French Revolution, both World Wars, to the modern transformation of the family today. According to Luigi Zoja, today's era is characterized by the disappearance of fathers from both family and society, even though both have a patriarchal foundation. Luigi Zoja is a knowledgeable and literarily skilled guide through the cultural history of the West and has much to say to anyone interested in the deeper psychological background of contemporary Western society and family.