„Miłość ojca jest miłością warunkową”. O możliwych psychologicznych następstwach przyjęcia pewnego założenia

Abstract

In his work The Art of Loving E. Fromm writes that father’s love is conditional; you have to deserve your father’s love and you may also lose it unless father’s expectations are fulfilled. This concept has often been referred to in the literature about fatherhood issues and in our opinion, it is still widely accepted as a psychological fact. That is why a reader may be inclined to draw the following conclusions: 1) such love is the norm resulting from the nature of a man-father; and/or 2) in principle, it is beneficial (desirable) for the development of a child. In our opinion, both conclusions may have great impact, basically negative, on the whole family structure. Our article will discuss some consequences of father’s conditional love on the child development and the functioning of a family system observed in the course of our psychological internship programme.