ABSTRACT
At the beginning of this study, we circled around some preliminary questions. Was there some shift afoot in modern fatherhood? Had we become so exclusively concerned with the bond between mother and child that we neglected what the father might offer, the possibility of a double dynamo behind the child. Were varieties of traditional fatherhood emerging in Western societies – fresh nuances and relationships which each man sought out for himself? In the private world of the family, did men now want to offer their child something different from what they remembered of their own fathering? Why did we know so little of fathers, and how was it that they were one of the lesser-observed species?
