Praise for Fatherless Sons "Research shows that most men now are better fathers than their own fathers were to them. A generation of men are 'making it up,' giving to their children more than they received. No one describes the poignancy--and hope--of contemporary fatherhood better than Jonathan Diamond's heartfelt and insightful new book. For every man who had a father--and who wants to be one." --Terrence Real, author of I Don't Want to Talk About It: Overcoming the Secret Legacy of Male Depression and How Can I Get Through to You?: Closing the Intimacy Gap Between Men and Women "Diamond's moving account of his relationship with his father is a nuanced exploration of mourning and its aftermath." --Publishers Weekly "This is a powerful and beautiful book, written with warmth, humor, and generosity of spirit. Fatherless Sons guides us through the complex journey of grief, helping to transform pain and anguish into hope and healing." --Dr. Dusty Miller, author of Your Surviving Spirit and Women Who Hurt Themselves

Drawing from culture, stories, and his own personal experience, John Sowers presents the desperate reality of fatherlessness in his generation. Fatherless Generation is a hard-hitting, descriptive look at this issue, showing how awareness, compassion, and mentoring are the keys to writing new stories of hope.

If you are a mother raising a son without a father this book was written for you. What are the 5 major diseases and ailments that your son is more likely to acquire without his father (or a suitable male role model) in his life? What are the 4 critical skills that a father can teach his son that a mother cannot teach? What are the 4 characteristics that adult sons without fathers possess that put them at a disadvantage in developing relationships? These questions-and many more-are answered in this book. Whether they lose their fathers to divorce or death, or whether their fathers go to prison or abandon them at birth, or were simply never in the picture-such as in artificial insemination-boys that grow up in homes without their biological father go through childhood at a disadvantage. There are almost 9 million such sons in America. The authors believe that mothers can overcome those disadvantages with effective parenting tailored to their sons' needs. The authors are convinced that most mothers want to do what is right for their sons, and if that does not always occur, it is usually because they do not always have the right information at their fingertips. Specifically, this book was written for: * Single mothers who are raising sons without a father. * Married mothers contemplating divorce. * Mothers with sons who have remarried. * Lesbian mothers who are raising a son. * Adoptive parents who are raising a son. Most self-help parenting books are "bucket brigade" manuals that are written to help parents put out the fires that arise in the normal course of parenting a child. The authors do that, too, with the problems that are specific to fatherless boys, but their major focus is teaching skills that will help mothers prevent problems from ever developing. Sons who grow up without fathers have different needs, different experiences, and different life expectations from sons who grow up with fathers, and those differences begin in childhood and continue throughout life. Sons with fathers, absent physical or emotional abuse in the family, usually grow up to consider the world to be a friendly place with potential for great good. Without special parenting by their mothers, sons without fathers invariably see the world as an unfriendly place with potential for great harm. Mardi Allen, Ph.D. and James L. Dickerson are co-authors of "How to Screen Adoptive and Foster Parents: A Workbook for Professionals and Students" and "The Basics of Adoption: A Guide for Building Families in the U.S. and Canada." Dr. Allen is a psychologist who counsels families in private practice, clinical liaison for the Mississippi Department of Mental Health, and a former president of the Association of State and Provincial Psychology Boards. Dickerson is a social work innovator who has developed new programs such as the Foster Parent Syndrome, a screening procedure for selecting adoptive and foster parents, and "You've Got a Friend," a federally funded socialization program for individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities. In addition, he is the author of two health-related books, "Cirrhosis: An Essential Guide for the Newly Diagnosed" and "Yellow Fever: A Deadly Disease Poised to Kill Again."

The American family is changing. Divorce, single parents, and stepfamilies are redefi ning the ways we live together and raise our children. Many "experts" feel these seemingly inevitable changes should be celebrated; they claim that the "new" families, which often lack a strong father, are actually healthier than traditional two-parent families—or, at the very least, do children no harm. But as David Popenoe shows in Families Without Fathers this optimistic view is severely misguided. Examining evidence from social and behavioral science, history, and evolutionary biology, Popenoe shows why fathers today are deserting their families in record numbers. The disintegration of the child-centered, two parent family—especially in the inner cities, where as many as two in three children are growing up without their fathers—and the weakening commitment of fathers to their children that more and more follows divorce, are central causes of many of our worst individual and social problems. Juvenile delinquency, drug and alcohol abuse, teenage pregnancy, welfare dependency, and child poverty can be directly traced to fathers' lack of involvement in their children's lives. Our situation will only get worse, Popenoe warns, unless men are willing to renew their commitment to their marriages and to their children. Yet he is not just an alarmist. He suggests concrete policies, and new ways of thinking and acting that will help all fathers improve their marriages and family lives, and tells us what we as individuals and as a society can do to support and strengthen the most important thing a man can do.

A Jungian analyst examines masculine identity and the psychological repercussions of ‘fatherlessness’—whether literal, spiritual, or emotional—in the baby boom generation An experience of the fragility of conventional images of masculinity is something many modern men share. Psychoanalyst Guy Corneau traces this experience to an even deeper feeling men have of their fathers’ silence or absence—sometimes literal, but especially emotional and spiritual. Why is this feeling so profound in the lives of the postwar “baby boom” generation—men who are now approaching middle age? Because, he says, this generation marks a critical phase in the loss of the masculine initiation rituals that in the past ensured a boy’s passage into manhood. In his engaging examination of the many different ways this missing link manifests in men's lives, Corneau shows that, for men today, regaining the essential “second birth” into manhood lies in gaining the ability to be a father to themselves—not only as a means of healing psychological pain, but as a necessary step in the process of becoming whole.

“The strong, authentic voices of the women sharing their own narratives and awakenings from life without fathers is the power of this book.” —Esme AAMBC Non-Fiction Self-Help Book of the Year AAMBC Breakout Author of the Year He Never Came Home is a collection of twenty-two personal essays written by girls and women who have been separated from their fathers by way of divorce, abandonment, or death. The contributors to this collection come from a wide range of different backgrounds in terms of race, socioeconomic status, religion, and geographic location. Their essays offer deep insights into the emotions related to losing one’s father, including sadness, indifference, anger, acceptance—and everything in between. This book, edited by Essence magazine’s west coast editor Regina R. Robertson, is first and foremost an offering to young girls and women who have endured the loss of their fathers. But it also speaks to mothers who are raising girls without a father present, offering important perspective into their daughter’s feelings and struggles. The essays in He Never Came Home are organized into three categories: “Divorce,” “Distant,” and “Deceased.” With essays by contributors including Emmy Award-winning actress Regina King, fitness expert and New York Times bestselling author Gabrielle Reece, television comedy writer Jenny Lee—and a foreword by TV news anchor Joy-Ann Reid—this anthology illustrates the journey of the fatherless, and provides a space for these writers to express their pain, hope, and healing, minus any judgments and without apology.

One man shares his story of growing up fatherless, the lessons it taught him, and how sons and parents can combat its side effects. Searching for Dad steps inside the mind, heart, and soul of a boy without a father. Recognizing the power of the emotional and psychological side effects of growing up fatherless will help absentee fathers, single mothers, and sons who survived a fatherless childhood understand and cope. Byron Ricks shares his story about the challenges he faced, the lessons he learned, and the man he became. He writes for fathers who do not realize the full impact their absence can have, for mothers wanting to do the best for their sons but are not sure what that is, and for men who feel empty and unattached and are not sure why. Ultimately, Searching for Dad is a book of hope, filled with illustrations about nine side effects and how fathers, mothers, and sons can forestall, minimize and even reverse them. Growing up fatherless may be the condition; healing is the possibility.

"This book investigates the impact of absent - physically or emotionally - and inadequate fathers on the lives and psyches of their daughters through the perspective of Jungian analytical psychology. It tells the stories of daughters who describe the insecurity of self, the splintering and disintegration of the personality, and the silencing of voice. It is relevant for those wanting to understand the complex dynamics of daughters and fathers to become their authentic selves and essential reading for those seeking understanding, analytical and depth psychologists, therapy professionals, academics and students with Jungian and post-Jungian interests"--.

Winner of a Coretta Scott King Illustrator Medal and the Boston Horn Book Award A simple, powerful book for children, about an absent father and the love he leaves behind Every morning, I play a game with my father.He goes knock knock on my doorand I pretend to be asleeptill he gets right next to the bed.And my papa, he tells me, "I love you." But what happens when, one day, that "knock knock" doesn't come? This powerful and inspiring book shows the love that an absent parent can leave behind, and the strength that children find in themselves as they grow up and follow their dreams.

A moving, elegantly written, and exhaustively researched account of what it means for a girl to lose a father to death or divorce—with advice for fatherless daughters on how to cope. “People who lose their parents early in life are like fellow war veterans. As soon as they discover that they are talking to someone else who has lost a parent, they know they are speaking the same language without uttering a word.” Pamela Thomas gives voice to this unspoken pain in Fatherless Daughters. Still haunted by her own father’s death when she was ten, Thomas decided to explore its effects. Though her journey began as a personal one, she soon felt the need to hear from other women and ended up interviewing more than one hundred fatherless women. They ranged in age from nineteen to ninety-four; they came from all areas of the country as well as Europe and Asia; some had lost their fathers to death, others to divorce or abandonment. Each account was unique, but the impact of a father’s loss was profound in every woman’s life. Thomas begins by defining what it means to be a father in our world. She discusses the initial shock of his loss, exploring the aspects that color how a young girl experiences it: her age at the time of her father’s death or abandonment, her mother’s behavior and attitudes, her place in the family vis-à-vis siblings, and the influence of a stepfather or father-surrogates. Thomas shows how a father’s early death or abandonment affects a woman’s emotional health and self-esteem, her body image, her sexual experiences, her marriage, her family life, and her career. Perhaps most important, Thomas offers compassionate advice for coming to terms with father loss, even late in life, from actively mourning, to healing, to starting fresh.