This book is the author's 1939 medical thesis and is dedicated to medical practitioners, paediatricians, and parents without prior knowledge of psychoanalysis. The author's aim was to sensitise people to the unconscious dimensions of many problems in children. She demonstrates here, through sixteen case studies, how often children's difficulties at
Françoise 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.
This is a classic; good for those who still believe in Psychoanalysis. Dolto outlines basic Psychoanalytic theory (childhood's) and then proceeds to clinical cases description and analysis of intervention; the use of children drawings as a diagnostic tool is well and suggestively documented. This is a good introductory course on the theme.
This book basically contains a serie psychoanalytical analysis analysis of children. Dolto is well known in the psychoanalytical society for her work with children(although she also did work with adults). It is important to note that her work is heavily influenced by the structuralist Lacan. Dolto tries to showcase how psychoanalysis helped the children, in some pages we can even see some of their drawings with some interpretations. To be honest, this book is mostly designed for someone who has a good enough understanding of psychoanalysis as it features a lot of techincal terms and concepts that might be difficult to understand for a non specialised audience. All in all, I think this book is a good read for someone who knows about psychoanalysis, is curious or studying a field related to psychology or human science. Keep in mind that if u know psychoanalysis and read a lot of it this book will probably not change the way you look at this discipline. Still reading it is not too hard if u git the basic stuff and maybe it's not a bad ides to make it your first dolto book. Getting to know dolto is important in the academic field. Although, as tend to be the case with most psychologists or psychoanalyst this is a rather controversial person. Some people love her, others hate her. What will it be? I'd say it's up to you to decide how you chose to look at her and her work.