ABSTRACT
This chapter examines theories and research on the biological father in adoption. It draws generally from Michel Foucault's ideas on the culture of self and subjectivity in order to develop a discussion of the value of existing work on the biological father-daughter reunion. The chapter addresses the idea that the biological father is comparatively overlooked and either pathologised within the dominant discourse or constructed as a victim. It examines the role of the father in general – in the context of what is potentially a period of fragmenting fatherhood as a result of considerable social change – before narrowing focus to an examination of the father-daughter relationship, and the biological father-adopted daughter relationship in the context of reunion. A fundamental truth about biological fathers, then, lies in the notion that they are missing and that their absence is a problem.
