Eleanore Armstrong
God the Father
The Birth of the Living God - A Psychoanalytic Study
By Ana-Maria Rizzuto
UChicagoPress 256pp £22.47 order from our bookshop
Dr. Rizzuto’s book is a study of the formation of the God representation and its modification and uses during the entire course of life. She differs from Freud in that she finds this representation is affected by the child’s relationship not only with his real father but also with his mother and other significant early objects. Instead she develops his argument of 1914. that ‘all of (the child’s) later choices of friendship and love follow upon the basis of memory traces left behind by these first prototypes.’ The God image is concocted ‘out of this matrix of facts and fantasies, wishes, hopes and fears, in the exchanges with these incredible beings called parents’. (p.7).
Her findings are based on the use of a projective technique consisting of parallel questionnaires - one with questions about the parents, the other with questions about God - the aim being to reveal internalised object relations as well as the relationship with God. This information is interpreted in relation
Sign Up to our newsletter
Receive free articles, highlights from the archive, news, details of prizes, and much more.@Lit_Review
Follow Literary Review on Twitter
'Cruickshank’s history reveals an extraordinary eclecticism of architectural styles and buildings, from Dutch Revivalism to Arts and Crafts experimentation, from Georgian terraces to Victorian mansion blocks.'
William Boyd on the architecture of Chelsea.
https://literaryreview.co.uk/where-george-eliot-meets-mick-jagger
'The eight years he has spent in solitary confinement have had a devastating impact on his mental health ... human rights organisations believe his detention is punishment for his critical views.'
@lucyjpop on the Egyptian activist and poet Ahmed Douma.
https://literaryreview.co.uk/ahmed-douma
'We nipped down Mount Pleasant ... me marvelling at London all over again because the back of a Vespa gives you the everyday world like nothing else can.'
Ali Smith writes this month's diary.
https://literaryreview.co.uk/temple-of-vespa