Second thoughts
masculinity, the paternal function, societal change, and the analytic encounter
Keywords:
Masculinity, Paternal function, Male Vulnerability, Patriarchy, Gender identity, Authoritarianism, ManosphereAbstract
Reflecting on my 2015 paper, this article reconsiders masculinity’s elusiveness and the paternal function in light of accelerating sociocultural transformations in gender, fathering, parenting, and family life. Revisiting earlier formulations of male gender identity and primordial vulnerability, it argues that masculinity emerges through the ongoing integration of prephallic helplessness, phallic narcissism, genital/Oedipal organization, and the repudiated feminine and maternal within the male psyche. Contemporary challenges to patriarchal authority, alongside the rise of authoritarianism, Trumpism, and the manosphere, are understood as a symptomatic backlash against the blurring of gender boundaries and the activation of male vulnerability—Achilles’s vulnerable heel. Such hypermasculine defenses distort the father principle, attacking the feminine while undermining the paternal function necessary for differentiation, containment, relationality, and social cohesion. Clinically, the analyst must embody maternal, paternal, masculine, feminine, and non-binary positions, containing weakly represented states without premature interpretation. A more flexible masculinity, grounded in vulnerability, receptivity, otherness, and the reality principle, offers a psychoanalytic response to contemporary masculine discontents.
Downloads
References
Diamond, M.J. (2015). The elusiveness of masculinity: Primordial vulnerability, lack, and the
challenges of male development. Psychoanalytic Quarterly, 84: 47-102.
Diamond, M.J. (2017a). Recovering the father in mind and flesh: History, triadic functioning, and
developmental implications. Psychoanalytic Quarterly, 86: 297-334.
Diamond, M.J. (2017b). The missing father function in psychoanalytic theory and technique: The
analyst’s internal couple and maturing intimacy. Psychoanalytic Quarterly, 86: 861-887.
Diamond, M.J. (2018). When fathering fails: Violence, narcissism, and the father function in
ancient tales. Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association, 66: 7-40.
Diamond, M.J. (2020a). Changing notions of the feminine: Confronting psychoanalysts’
prejudices. International Journal of Psychoanalysis, 101: 230-234.
Diamond, M.J. (2020b). The elusiveness of the “feminine” in the male analyst: Primordial
vulnerability, lack, and the challenges of male development. Psychoanalytic Quarterly,
89: 503-526.
Diamond, M.J. (2021). Masculinity and Its Discontents: The Male Psyche and the Inherent
Tensions of Maturing Manhood. London: Routledge.
Diamond, M.J. (2022). Ruptures in the American Psyche: Containing Destructive Populism in
Perilous Times. Oxfordshire, UK: Phoenix Publishing House.
Diamond, M.J. (2023). Perverted containment: Trumpism, cult creation, and the rise
of destructive American populism. Psychoanalytic Inquiry, 43: 96-109.
Diamond, M.J. (2025). Toward the extermination of uncertainty: The dangerous allure of fascistic
states of mind. Psychoanalytic Quarterly, 94: 153-183.
Diamond, M.J. (2026). Fathering and the Paternal Function: A Contemporary Psychoanalytic
Perspective. Osfordshire, UK: Karnac.
Dinnerstein, D. (1976). The Mermaid and the Minotaur: Sexual Arrangements and Human
Malaise. New York: Harper & Row.
Eizirik, C.L. (2015). The father, the father function, and the father principle: Some contemporary
psychoanalytic developments. Psychoanalytic Quarterly, 84: 335-350.
Glasser, M. (1985). The “weak spot”—some observations on male sexuality. International
Journal of Psychoanalysis, 66: 405-414.
Hrdy, S.B. (2024). Father Time: A Natural History of Men and Babies. Princeton, NJ: Princeton
University Press.
Sedgewisk, A. (2025). Fatherhood: A History of Love and Power. New York: Scribner.
Wieland, C. (2005). Human longings and masculine terrors: masculinity and separation from
mother. British Journal of Psychotherapy, 22: 71-86.
Wieland, C. (2015). The Fascist State of Mind and the Manufacturing of Masculinity. London:
Routledge.
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
Atribuo os direitos autorais que pertencem a mim, sobre o presente trabalho, à SPPA, que poderá utilizá-lo e publicá-lo pelos meios que julgar apropriados, inclusive na Internet ou em qualquer outro processamento de computador.
I attribute the copyrights that belong to me, on this work, to SPPA, which may use and publish it by the means it deems appropriate, including on the Internet or in any other computer processing.
Atribuyo los derechos de autor que me pertenecen, sobre este trabajo, a SPPA, que podrá utilizarlo y publicarlo por los medios que considere oportunos, incluso en Internet o en cualquier otro tratamiento informático.
