FINDING OUR FATHERS
Finding Our Fathers examines the hidden struggle faced by millions of
men: how to reconcile their childhood images of their fathers, and all
men, as silent, stoic breadwinners with the life they want to live now -
embracing two-career marriages, closer ties with their children, a greater
emotional awareness. Harvard psychologist Samuel Osherson shows how a
man's "unfinished business" with his father affects his
relationships with his spouse, children, friends, and boss, and how it can
lead to a profound sense of loneliness, vulnerability, and rage.
Osherson's work penetrates the shroud of silence that prevents men from
coming to terms with their deepest feelings and fears. He shows how every
man can resolve the inner conflict of the father-son relationship and
begin to develop a new sense of strength and purpose in his family life
and career.
This new, thoroughly revised edition of Finding Our Fathers, which became
an instant bestseller when originally published in 1986, is the first and
most crucial step to finding a more rewarding, more vital masculine
identity. It is one of the most important books you'll ever read about
your father - or about yourself.
Table of Contents
Introduction: Men's Unfinished Business
Chapter 1: Unspoken Debts: Men's Struggle to Separate from Father
Chapter 2: Dealing with Authority: Mentors and Fathers
Chapter 3: Of Working Wives and Men's Loneliness
Chapter 4: Vulnerability and Rage: What Not Being Able to Have Children
Tells Us About All Men
Chapter 5: The Empty Urn: Do Men Get Pregnant Too?
Chapter 6: Fatherhood as a Healing and Wounding Experience
Chapter 7:Healing the Wounded Father
Reader's praise for finding Our Fathers
"Sam Osherson may be our premier national interpreter of men's
experience."
--Lillian Rubin, author of Families on the Fault Line
"A groundbreaking, classic work, Finding Our Fathers offers a beacon
of understanding and a ray of hope for men and boys in America and the
women who love them. It is a must-read."
--William S. Pollack, Ph.D., author of Real Boys: Rescuing Our Sons from
the Myths of Boyhood
"Finding Our Fathers is a treasure. It is a classic that greatly
influenced my thinking. It made me and a generation of researchers expand
our horizons, to no longer cast a blind eye on the psychological impact of
fathers and children."
-- Dan Kindlon, Ph.D., coauthor of Raising Cain: Protecting the Emotional
Life of Boys.