Frank Pittman
Frank Pittman
Frank Smith Pittman, III, M.D.was an American psychiatrist and author. He wrote a regular column, "Ask Dr. Frank", which used to appear in Psychology Today...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionPsychologist
CountryUnited States of America
girl father responsibility
When it comes to little girls, God the father has nothing on father, the god. It's an awesome responsibility.
children giving-up growing-up
The child who would be an adult must give up any lingering childlike sense of parental power, either the magical ability to solveyour problems for you or the dreaded ability to make you turn back into a child. When you are no longer hiding from your parents, or clinging to them, and can accept them as fellow human beings, then they may do the same for you.
wise strong growing-up
We never really are the adults we pretend to be. We wear the mask and perhaps the clothes and posture of grown-ups, but inside ourskin we are never as wise or as sure or as strong as we want to convince ourselves and others we are. We may fool all the rest of the people all of the time, but we never fool our parents. They can see behind the mask of adulthood. To her mommy and daddy, the empress never has on any clothes--and knows it.
children parent being-a-father
The end product of child raising is not the child but the parent.
men perfect-parents being-a-parent
Fathering is not something perfect men do, but something that perfects the man.
children believe men
Men who have been raised violently have every reason to believe it is appropriate for them to control others through violence; they feel no compunction over being violent to women, children, and one another.
parent progress distrust
Parents can make us distrust ourselves. To them, we seem always to be works-in-progress.
powerful successful parent
No one, however powerful and successful, can function as an adult if his parents are not satisfied with him.
mother powerful wife
We know how powerful our mother was when we were little, but is our wife that powerful to us now? Must we relive our great deed of escape from Mama with every other woman in our life?
strong men diapers
Why do otherwise sane, competent, strong men, men who can wrestle bears or raid corporations, shrink away in horror at the thought of washing a dish or changing a diaper?
father boys violence
As boys without bonds to their fathers grow older and more desperate about their masculinity, they are in danger of forming gangs in which they strut their masculinity for one another, often overdo it, and sometimes turn to displays of fierce, macho bravado and even violence.
running father needs
If fathers who fear fathering and run away from it could only see how little fathering is enough. Mostly, the father just needs to be there.
family mother children
Mother love has been much maligned. An over mothered boy may go through life expecting each new woman to love him the way his mother did. Her love may make any other love seem inadequate. But an unloved boy would be even more likely to idealize love. I don't think it's possible for a mother or father to love a child too much.
boys men guilt
When the masculine mystique is pulling boys and men out into the world to growl manly noises at one another, the only power with astronger pull on the male psyche is maternally induced guilt. The guilt is quite necessary for our moral development, but it is often uncomfortable.