ABSTRACT
The nineteenth century brought a great change. The Industrial Revolution forced many fathers to be away from their families for ever more extended periods of time in order to be able to follow their work, and this led to the rise of a new mentality. The father's principal task no longer lay in teaching values: instead, he had become a "breadwinner." The ideal of the breadwinner is in a certain sense regressive and leads quite a way back in time. The child wants a victorious father, and the father wants to make himself a winner in the universal games of the marketplace. The father's identity is ever more dependent on his success in the marketplace. The attitudes are complementary, and reciprocally bolster one another. The affirmation of the ideal of the breadwinner has reinforced the paradox. The role of the breadwinner becomes his way of softening the feelings of guilt that he is not unlikely to experience.
