Atlas Shrugged/Dagnys Mother

Dagny's mother is mentioned in Section152. She worried about her daughter's apparent lack of interest in boys, and never understood Dagny's desire to work for the railroad. Because of her lack of understanding, she was never able to give Dagny guidance or support, though she was kind and caring within her limits.

There is no indication that Dagny's parents failed in their parenting: they were kind, loving, and did not stand in her way or attempt to change her decisions. There is no fuel here for a Freudian interpretation of Dagny's character, such as, 'her drive to achieve is merely the attempt to earn the love she wanted but was denied as a child.' Greatness, in Rand's heroes, is not the attempt to compensate for some shortcoming; it is an expression of values, not an expression of their absence.