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Dominique: The Case of an Adolescent
THIS LONG OUT-OF-PRINT, SOUGHT AFTER TEXT FROM 1973 IS A CASE STUDY TO RIVAL FREUD'S DORA
The case of a psychotic 14 year-old boy presented in its full form by the renowned French psychoanalyst. With transcription of comments and reactions made by the child, his parents and the therapist.
Francoise Dolto stands alongside Jacques Lacan as a leading light of the Other French school, her research was integrated into schools, hospitals and popular media at a national level. First published in 1971, reading Dominique now gives a granular portrait of an adolescent's subjectivity and its familial and state inheritance. As such the book is an historical example of how the secular Republic of Metropolitan France produced forms of thought.
Translated by Ivan Kats, revised by Lionel and Sham Bailly, and with an Afterword by Michael Ryzner-Basiewicz.
The case of a psychotic 14 year-old boy presented in its full form by the renowned French psychoanalyst. With transcription of comments and reactions made by the child, his parents and the therapist.
Francoise Dolto stands alongside Jacques Lacan as a leading light of the Other French school, her research was integrated into schools, hospitals and popular media at a national level. First published in 1971, reading Dominique now gives a granular portrait of an adolescent's subjectivity and its familial and state inheritance. As such the book is an historical example of how the secular Republic of Metropolitan France produced forms of thought.
Translated by Ivan Kats, revised by Lionel and Sham Bailly, and with an Afterword by Michael Ryzner-Basiewicz.
- GenresPsychoanalysis
264 pages, Paperback
Published October 15, 2025
About the author
Françoise Dolto
179 books114 followersFrançoise Dolto was a French pediatrician and psychoanalyst, famous for her research on babies and childhood. Dolto revolutionized the field of psycho-therapeutic work with babies (notably in their early experience and usage of language through their body), with the mother-baby dyad, and with a more positive observation and understanding of the means of communication used by children with learning or social disabilities.
She worked with Jacques Lacan, and said that children have a language before the language (with the body). She has contributed to the question of the unconscious body image, and influenced among others the work of Maud Mannoni.
As a recognized feminist, she also worked on reconciling women with their sexuality; she also analyzed the attitude of children when their parents are separating or divorcing.
Françoise Dolto was the mother of Carlos (1943–2008), a singer; and the sister of Jacques Marette, a minister.
From Wikipedia:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fran%C3%...
She worked with Jacques Lacan, and said that children have a language before the language (with the body). She has contributed to the question of the unconscious body image, and influenced among others the work of Maud Mannoni.
As a recognized feminist, she also worked on reconciling women with their sexuality; she also analyzed the attitude of children when their parents are separating or divorcing.
Françoise Dolto was the mother of Carlos (1943–2008), a singer; and the sister of Jacques Marette, a minister.
From Wikipedia:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fran%C3%...
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March 9, 2026
Astonishing. The chapter "Encounter, Interhuman Communication and Transference in the Psychoanalysis of Psychotics" is a sweeping, tour de force, telling of the psychoanalytic view. In those thirty pages Dolto gives definitions of language, the human, sense perception, culture, desire, and life and death that have the capacity to radically restructure depressive and malignant psychic formations or identifications. A wise, beautiful, shocking book. The actual case study, 12 sessions over the course of a year in which a 14 year old, floridly psychotic, boy is invited back into the human fold, and given means to express and identify himself as a desiring subject, through Dolto's remarkable capacity to witness, listen, read and make contact, is heartbreakingly beautiful in and of itself.
Displaying 1 of 1 review