Father. It is part of the basic menu on this planet. To be born everyone has to have one.
May not have known the father, may not know who is to this day, but everyone has one.
The most libertarians and new age can say what they want: Father is who creates not need my father to anything or never needed, mothers who choose to solo career and go to the sperm bank etc. .. Are you a parent. Fact. And go into denial the individual fracture.
It took a while for me to understand and be at peace (a good time, by the way) that father is an ordinary guy who had a son. And this ordinary guy has its own history, its conflicts, its particular worldview, their beliefs, their limitations and challenges.
Mine is a figure. Already was hero and villain has been in my interpretation. Today is only my father. And that's a lot.
I learned a lot from him. And I had to unlearn much of what I learned from him, for the sake of my life.
In therapy, dealing with father and mother is mandatory because they are present in person. It's simple and powerful way. I see it all the time. As an individual, little by little, slowly (in my case, put it slowly) things were entering a more balanced perspective.
Accept the father as it appears (no more or less), it is one of the most powerful lessons of life. That's how life is made possible for me and you're here.
From this acceptance, the choices of life paths are much more strengthened.