Becoming a father: Parenthood as a subjective inscription of finitude

Abstract

This study aimed to investigate the subjective experience of fatherhood at two moments of the baby's development, on the sixth month and at the end of the second year of the child's life. We used a longitudinal multiple case study design. Three primiparous fathers took part in this study. Data were collected on the sixth month and at the end of the second year of the child's life. Each father answered an interview and their responses were analysed based on psychoanalytic theory. Becoming a father was associated with the subjective inscription of finitude, demanding resignations and grief by the fathers, a process that allows the baby to be taken as the object of paternal desire.