The absence of the principle of authority in Brazilian contemporary family

Abstract

This article intends to discuss the interferences of historical, social and cultural Brazilian context in the contemporary family structuring process, more specifically, in the construction of the phenomenon “Weakening of parental role”. According to literature, the changes of values in the contemporary family shaping culminated in displacing the principle of parental authority in today’s family settings; furthermore, we demonstrate how interferences from history, science and contemporary social and cultural conditions were able to withdraw one ‘know how’ from parents, the one which previously belonged to them. Finally, we will examine the consequences of this discussion for the construction of new subjective settlements.