Frank Pittman Quotes

United States, Religious Leader
1935 – November, 24, 2012.

Frank Smith Pittman, III, M.D. (1935 – November 24, 2012) was an American psychiatrist and author. He wrote a regular column, "Ask Dr. Frank", which used to appear in Psychology Today. During his lifetime, he was a "widely quoted author" of Man Enough: Fathers, Sons and the Search for Masculinity and Private Lies: Infidelity and Betrayal of Intimacy.He was also author of books Grow Up!: How Taking Responsibility Can Make You a Happy Adult, and Turning Points: Treating Families in Transition and Crisis.

Also known as Author

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.

Frank Pittman
- Believe
- Men
- Women
Fathering makes a man, whatever his standing in the eyes of the world, feel strong and good and important, just as he makes his child feel loved and valued.

Frank Pittman
- World
- Good
- Important

A boy is not free to find a partner of his own as long as he must be the partner to his mother.

Frank Pittman
- Long
- Mother
- Free
Parents can make us distrust ourselves. To them, we seem always to be works-in-progress.

Frank Pittman
- Parents
- Progress
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?

Frank Pittman
- Men
- Why
- Strong
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?

Frank Pittman
- Life
- Great
- Mother
But after the intimacy-inducing rituals of puberty, boys who would be men are told we must go it alone, we must achieve our heroism as the Lone Ranger, we must see the other men as threats to our masculine mastery, as objects of competition.

Frank Pittman
- Men
- Alone
- Competition
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.

Frank Pittman
- Father
- Fear

Each generation's job is to question what parents accept on faith, to explore possibilities, and adapt the last generation's system of values for a new age.

Frank Pittman
- Job
- Age
- Parents
No one, however powerful and successful, can function as an adult if his parents are not satisfied with him.

Frank Pittman
- Parents
- Powerful
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.

Frank Pittman
- Violence
- Fierce
A man doesn't have to have all the answers; children will teach him how to parent them, and in the process will teach him everything he needs to know about life.

Frank Pittman
- Life
- Children