Cultural balances

I don't laud matriarchal culture in the abstract, but rather in the particular manifestation it had when I was growing up. The women were the moral authorities of the society and the fundamental guardians of order. Actually, if you view a TV series like the British 1960s hospital drama, The Royal, the matron in that series is this type. She keeps order over the realm of women (the nurses), but by extension, she has a high degree of moral authority over the running of the whole hospital.

My earlier point was not intended to laud matriarchy, then, but to indicate how it was necessary in my previous culture to counterbalance an extremely macho ethic. You have men going to war and becoming unraveled by their experiences, and unless there is some solid, ethical core to the society, the whole society dissolves. The wilder and more emotional the men are, the more this stoical inner core of ethical resolve is necessitated.

This should indicate how much “psychological issues” are actually cultural ones

Take my father out of his original context, and there is no counterbalancing measure to his extreme tendencies. There is no Australian matriarchy. There is nothing here that could act to restrict or dampen his enthusiasm for imposing patriarchal mores.