ABSTRACT
The goal of the research described below was to elucidate the father image of daughters after the loss of the father through divorce or death. In view of the differences in development depending on gender, the research was restricted to females. The father has the role of opening up the male world to the child. The assumption is that the way this relationship with the father is experienced gives a model for later life, relationships, sexuality, and structures of the personality like the ego-ideal, the super-ego and the position in triads. Social reality itself often creates situations where the father is missing either through divorce, death, work, war or for other reasons. In consequence, many children have to fill this void with an image of the father, who is such an important person for their development. With this growing interest in the relationship between the father and the family, triads became more significant (Fthenakis et al., 1982). The mother nevertheless plays an important role in this process: her image of her partner and men in general is transferred to the daughter. This led to an investigation in which not only the daughters but also the mothers were the focus of interest.
