ABSTRACT
The father’s ‘ownership’ of the daughter, enshrined in law within many societies, exposes the underlying dynamic of the relationship. The illusion of ownership enters into the relationship between father and daughter very early. Love is indeed what the girl is looking for, as she moves from the unsatisfactory relationship with her mother to an idealised relationship with father. The transition to the father object is accomplished with the help of the passive trends and in so far as they have escaped the catastrophe. The defences which developed within the father-daughter relationship were so very firmly entrenched because it was these which had proved so successful in providing them with basic self-esteem. The symbiotic relationship between a psychotic mother and her daughters, who kept their mother sane by agreeing not to separate from her, was unbroken by the intervention of a father.
