Combating the Father Complex Phenomenon

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Often and across generations, daughter-father relationship issues have not been brought to the fore for discussion. The assumption that child-rearing has always been a function of women has been left in the background. Although women have played and continue to play important roles in child rearing, the psychological impact of fathers on the child’s overall development cannot be overemphasized.

The search for knowledge arising from the evolutionary stages of human existence and the effects of father absence, father presence, and father involvement on children in child rearing highlights the growing interest in research focusing on the effects of the father on the psychological development of the child. This situation revealed the positive and negative effects of father involvement on their children.

This article focuses on the father relationship and how it affects daughters or daughters in their relationships with other men. Thus the Daddy Complex or “Daddy Issues”.

Why?

In psychology, ‘daddy issues’ are defined as ‘daddy complex’. A father complex occurs when a person’s relationship with his father is poor. The need for love, support, approval, and understanding progresses into adulthood and can result in poor decisions in relationships.
(Perspective Consulting, 2024). This term may also be referred to as ELECTRA COMPLEX, a psychoanalytic term used to describe a girl’s feeling of competing with other women for the affection of a father figure.

However, ‘Father Complex’ or ‘Daddy issues’ affects both men and women, but this article aims to draw attention to its effects on daughters by highlighting the rationale for fathers’ presence and involvement in their daughters’ lives.

Effects of the Father Complex on girls

The effects of ‘Daddy Issues’ or ‘Father Complex’ on girls; It ranges from fear of abandonment, being difficult to trust men, emotionally unavailable, needing constant reassurance, dating older men, being suspicious and overly jealous, constantly testing one’s affections, being overly friendly towards men, and being preferred. sexual intercourse with emotional ones.

Fear of abandonment:

This is a negative psychological state in some girls that results from “having a father who was mentally or emotionally neglectful and never gave her what she needed,” Morgan, 2024. This experience evokes “an intense and irrational fear of abandonment, especially by those close to her.” . romantic relationships often lead to clingy or overly dependent behavior,” ETherapyPro, 2024. Women who grow up in such homes normally say, “I’ll leave you before you leave me.”

It’s Hard to Trust Men:

Daughters born to fathers who are emotionally or physically absent struggle with abandonment, commitment and trust issues. The combination of these negative traits affects girls’ self-esteem, leading to distrust of their partners and often resulting in mistrust and jealousy. This type of tendency towards men affects the stability of their marriage.

Emotionally Unavailable:

Such women, who cannot experience closeness with their fathers due to physical or emotional absence, will normally experience problems in their romantic relationships due to their inability to establish an emotional bond with their fathers. They get emotionally lost in relationships.

You Need Constant Reassurance:

“Excessive reassurance seeking often stems from deep insecurities and an overarching need for approval and reflects concerns about self-worth and belonging” (Brito, 2024). Women whose socialization is affected by the absence of a Father need constant reassurance from men before any functional relationship can develop, which becomes debilitating.

Dating Older Men:

One of the negative consequences of ‘Daddy Issues’ in girls’ lives is that they subconsciously decide to date older men who seem like father figures to them. This is one of the vintage traits often associated with the concept of “daddy issues” or “Daddy Complex”.

Extremely Jealous and Suspicious:

Women are naturally jealous, but fatherless women become extremely jealous and suspicious of their partners due to unresolved issues with their fathers. Jealousy often stems from feelings of inadequacy or insecurity resulting from the absence of a father, or from ‘daddy issues’ that become an influence that carries over into women’s adult life.

Constantly Testing His Love:

Women with a ‘Father Complex’ are growing up and need a lot of attention and approval from their partners; They are uncomfortable with their partners having female friends, and they cannot develop coping mechanisms because they cannot receive the same support from their fathers.

Extreme Friendliness Towards Men:

Women with ‘Daddy issues’ or ‘Daddy Complex’ are easily attracted to men. These are noticeable in their reactions to men and women. They turn to men to fill the void left by their physically or emotionally absent fathers. The tangible impact of the ‘Daddy Complex’ or ‘Daddy Issues’.

Prefers Sexual Relationships Over Emotional Relationships:

Daddy issues affect girls’ orientation toward emotional acceptance and sexual relationships. Many girls with daddy issues misinterpret sexual relationships as emotional intimacy. Accordingly, the result of this
Nielsen (2021) describes it as the use of “sex to attract attention and confirm one’s self-worth.”

Results

The ensuing narrative explains the complex psychological effects of fatherlessness on girls. This not only highlights the consequences for girls’ physical characteristics, but also affects their relationships with others, especially men, leading to dysfunctional romantic relationships. However, ‘Daddy Complex’ or ‘Daddy Issues’ affects girls’ self-worth, including fear of being abandoned by other men, being difficult to trust men, emotionally unavailable to men, constantly needing reassurance from men, fear of dating older men causes harmful effects on their bodies. , being suspicious and overly jealous of her man, constantly testing a man’s love, being overly friendly towards men, and preferring sexual relations to emotional relationships, this situation can be stopped in the future.

According to Susan Schwartz, 2021, The absence of the father provokes and perpetuates a negative father complex, making the world bleak, often hopeless, until it is understood. The negative father complex can negatively affect the daughter’s self-confidence, encourage idealization of others, and collapse assertiveness and initiative.

Based on this premise, this article aims to serve as a unifying call to all fathers to stand by the daughter as a matter of principle and responsibility, in order to balance the bleak picture of the effects of daddy issues on girls. When society has more psychologically significant numbers of girls, they stabilize the home, which acts as a turning point to produce more stable homes.