This paper considers how fundamental aspects of the thought of Jean Piaget can be correlated with autobiographical data by a psychoanalytic approach, using a procedure ('psychobiography') which has been adopted increasingly in various disciplines in the last few years. In particular, it is a matter of the split between the emotional and the intellectual—specifically, the fundamental lack of integration of emotional development factors in the basis of his approach.

The principal assumption in this paper is that Piaget, owing to his own youthful experiences, had to limit himself to an intellectualistic picture of child development. This conception implies the warding-off of emotional motivations (specifically, his own). A striking example of this, mentioned in the paper, is the way he had to take flight into the study of molluscs at various crucial times in his life; this is a telling indication of his relation to the screened-off part of his existence.