Even people with loving fathers can end up with this pain. Do you tend to fall for emotionally unavailable partners? Do you struggle with anger or feel the need to keep rigid boundaries in nearly every area of your life? For some people, these patterns can be linked to what therapists call a “father wound.” “The term ‘father wound’ isn’t a formal diagnosis, but it’s a helpful way to describe the emotional pain that comes from an absent, emotionally unavailable, critical, unpredictable or unsafe