Page 166 - EMCAPP-Journal No. 5

A Portrait of a Christian Psychologist: Paul C. Vitz

ships, and more interested in objects and spatial We are just now aware of the widespread social
exploration than female children. pathology, especially the increase in violence,
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As a result, psychologists generally agree that resulting from fatherlessness in families (and
autonomy and independence come more easily the data are staggering! ). What worse moment
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to boys than girls. could there be to diminish fatherhood in our
For the daughter, who is similar to the mother theology?
and closely tied to her, individuation can often We have enough absent fathers without trying
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be a problem. One of the important natural to send God the Father away, too! To remove
functions of the father is to help his daughter God the Father is to remove a major support
separate from her mother, to help the daughter for positive male identity. In a church that is al-
form her own identity, and to keep her from re- ready far more popular with women than with
maining “merged” with her mother. men, this means the removal of one of the few
The other major task for both sexes is the deve- remaining supports for men.
lopment of sexual or gender identity. This task What about female psychology, in a unisex so-
is reliably understood by psychologists as more ciety? We have already looked at how feminine
difficult for males than females. Males may se- autonomy and power are enhanced through a
parate from their mother fairly easily and reco- relationship with a strong father or spiritually
gnize the mother as “not me,” but that does not with God as Father. Now we turn to the pro-
tell them who they are as males. They must find blem of the psychology of female sexual identity
this male identity elsewhere, through their fa- and God the Father. In general, as already men-
ther or other father figures who are often unre- tioned, women have an easier task in forming
liable or unavailable, and in any case are usually their sexual identity.
not around much in the first few years of the How does the fatherhood of God enhance fe-
child’s life. From the beginning, however, and minine identity? I propose that it is analogous
apparently in all societies, little girls see in their to the way in which, through love and support,
mother the meaning of womanhood every day a good father enhances the sexual identity of
in very concrete ways, and they understand this his own daughters. A good deal of research has
as basic to their identity. They have an adult wo- shown that girls without fathers are more vul-
man close by to model the meaning of female- nerable to pathologies ranging from depression
ness for them. What fathers do qua fathers is to promiscuity. These findings are interpreted
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far less obvious. as showing that fatherless girls tend to be less
God the Father, however, gives men a model sure of their lovability.
with which to identify, even if their own fathers
have been inadequate. Thus, the model of God Let me expand somewhat on what I see as a spe-
the Father is a fundamental psychological sup- cial feminine capacity for the spiritual life. From
port for this essential masculine need.
It seems to me bizarre to the point of pathology 11 See D. Blankenhorn, Fatherless America: Confron-
ting Our Most Urgent Social Problem (New York: Basic
at this time in our culture to be trying to remove Books, 1995).
God the Father from our theology. 12 See, for example, L. W. Warren and C. Tomlinson
Keasey, “The Context of Suicide,” American Journal of
8 For example, see A. Moir and D. Jessel, Brain Sex: The Orthopsychiatry 57 (1987): 41 48; C. W. Metzler et al.,
Real Difference Between Men and Women (New York: “The Social Context for Risky Sexual Behavior Among
Laurel/Dell, 1991). And the references in footnote 4. Adolescents,” Journal of Behavioral Medicine 17 (1994):
9 See, for example, N. J. Chodorow, “Gender, Relation 419 437; B. Rogers, “Pathways Between Parental Divo-
and Difference in Psychoanalytic Perspective,” in Essen- rce and Adult Depression,” Journal of Child Psychology
tial Papers on the Psychology of Women, ed. C. Zenardi and Psychiatry 35 (1994): 1289 1308; J. J. Evans and B. L.
(New York: New York Univ. Press, 1990), 420 436. Bloom (1997), “Effects of Parental Divorce Among Col-
10 Even today with many working mothers, the child is lege Undergraduates,” Journal of Divorce and Remarriage
most commonly left with a substitute mother such as a 26 (1997): 69 88; K. M. McCabe, “Sex Differences in the
nanny or female daycare worker, and even working mo- Long Term Effects of Divorce on Children: Depression
thers work hard to be close to their young children. In and Heterosexual Relationship Difficulties in the Young
addition, the very meaning of having babies is a very con- Adult Years,” Journal of Divorce and Remarriage 27
crete form of knowledge that girls easily understand, as (1997): 123 134.
compared to many male activities.

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