Constructing and deconstructing the conglomerate: Thoughts about the father in life, in death, and in theory

The father is encountered in the psychoanalytic Spielraum (analytic space) as a representation of self with another and of self with two others, the parents. How are these representations related to actual experience and how are they tutored by fantasy, developmental history and actual family configurations? Are there templates present in the psyche for a masculine parent and a feminine parent? Is their relationship also of crucial import in the developing mind of a child? I shall try to explore these questions by presenting material from two analyses.