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Theory and practice in child psychoanalysis: an introduction to the work of Françoise Dolto, edited by Guy Hall, Françoise Hivernel and Sian Morgan, London, Karnac, 2009, 224 pp., £22.95, ISBN 978-1-85575-574-1
The title of this book is slightly misleading. It seems to suggest that what is being offered is a general survey of child psychoanalytic theory and practice with particular reference to the work of the French psychoanalyst, Françoise Dolto. In reality, it consists of a detailed exposition of her life, work and theories (not all of these directly bearing on child psychoanalysis), with only passing mention made of other significant figures in the field, such as Melanie Klein, Anna Freud and Donald Winnicott. Its authors' hope, one supposes, is to have her name eventually added to this august trinity.
Who, then, was Françoise Dolto? Since most English-speaking child analysts and psychotherapists have probably never even heard of her, this is a question the reader will doubtless want answered first. So here is a brief biographical summary.
She was born in Paris in 1908 into a devout Catholic family antipathetic to the prevailing laicist ideology of the Third Republic. Against the wishes of her parents, from whose expectations and outlook she struggled to extricate herself while retaining her religious allegiance, she trained as a doctor with a special interest in children. At the same time she underwent analysis with Renée Laforgue, and then trained as a psychoanalyst, attending seminars by Spitz, Loewenstein, Nacht and
Hartmann, qualifying in 1938. Her child analytic training was informal, being conducted mainly under the tutelage of the charismatic Sophie Morgenstern, until the latter's suicide in 1940 on the eve of the German entry into Paris.
Throughout her professional life Dolto held an analytic post in the department of neuro-psychiatry at l'Hôpital Trousseau in Pari