Actually, it s a question about a 15-month-old boy that my friend nannies. The child is normally very active, friendly, loving, and is developing normally. However, he displays extreme frustration and anger when his father comes on the scene, even if he has been happy or content or playing and eating well beforehand with his nanny or mother. When he even sees his father, he immediately starts fussing and crying and clinging to the mother or the nanny. He pushes his father away and will try to get away from him. This does not happen with other males or other caregivers. This seems to be very unusual behavior and I wonder what the father is doing to cause such reaction in his son. It is very unfortunate; also, the father displays jealousy toward the child vis-a-vis the mother; the father complains that his son doesn t appreciate him, even though he has worked so hard and sacrificed so much for him (!!); the father says that he is a bad father and that his son doesn t like him; he encourages is son to hit other children if another child has taken away a toy or hit the child. It sounds as if the dad s psychological development stopped very early and that he is ill-equipped to parent due to lack of knowledge of himself (at least). Eli, the child, is starting to do things like bite himself; on one occasion lately, right after his father left the playroom, the nanny saw Eli grab a ball, squeeze it until he was shaking and grinding his teeth with an extremely frustrated look on his face. The father verbally abuses the mother, who is a pediatrician, and the father recently lost his job. Anyway, would you have any insight into why the child is reacting to his father the way he does? Thanks very much.