This book, by a member of the French Psychoanalytical Association, continues a very advanced reflection both at the theoretical and at the clinical level. The breadth of the author's intellectual approach is demonstrated in many articles and books, including a work with a particularly original form: Kahn, 1993. Her philosophical training and her work with J. P. Vernant have enabled her to build bridges from Mediterranean myths and cultures.

Her latest book, reviewed here, reveals to us all the richness and the increasing depth of her analytic work, particularly as a child analyst. Its very title poses an enigma: of what does childhood need to be cured? To whose childhood is she referring? The patient's internal child? The analyst's own childhood? With this title, Kahn takes us straight to the heart of the matter, which naturally concerns the transference and countertransference, empathy and also our intuitive respect for the poetic realm inhabited by the child.