‘Minding Fatherhood’ – Small Things Like These
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West Midlands Institute of Psychotherapy
Description
WMIP are pleased to welcome back David Smith, chair of the Northern Ireland Institute of Human Relations to deliver a paper ~ ‘Minding Fatherhood’ Thoughts on the Paternal and on Paternity-Testing in the film ‘Small Things Like These’
The highly acclaimed 2024 Irish film Small Things Like These offers a deeply moving and psychologically astute paternal portrayal, with Cillian Murphy delivering an understated performance as fatherless father Bill Furlong. Following The Quiet Girl (2022), it further reflects author Claire Keegan’s concern with the welfare of children, particularly the developmental impact of being unwanted, unclaimed, neglected, and deprived of consistent loving parental care. Dedicated to the women and children who suffered in Ireland’s Magdalen laundries and mother and baby homes, the film and novel contribute to the emotional and psychological working-through of a deeply felt yet largely unprocessed collective trauma surrounding the systematic, decades-long abuse of women and children in Ireland.
Drawing on poetry and psychoanalytic thinking, this paper explores the powerful projective processes at play, characterised by the disavowal of desire and outsourcing of shame. Focusing on paternal representations, the enduring relational influence of the past, and the haunting presence of ghosts in the nursery, it considers the restorative and reparative potential of parenting, while challenging us to reflect on the ongoing societal neglect of children, to whom we all have promises to keep.
To get the most out of the session, we suggest you watch the film in advance – it is available on Amazon Prime
