The Mother Of French Psychoanalysis

Francoise Dolto (1908-1988) was a famous French psychoanalyst, educator and paediatrician. She was devoted in child psychoanalysis and child education, and holds a particular position in the development of child psychoanalysis in France. Her theories such as "the unconscious image of the body" and "symbol-generating castrations", described the important impact of subject, language, desire and body in the development of children. The unconscious image of the body is specific to each one of us and linked to the subject and the subject's history. It is the living synthesis of the emotional experiences of the desiring subject, the unconscious memory of lived relational experiences, both narcissistic and interrelational. The unconscious image of the body comprises three modes, that is the base image, the functional image and the erogenous image, all of which constitute the subject's narcissism at each stage of development. This paper also compares the unconscious image of the body and the embodied cognition. This study can be devided into three parts. Firstly, the differences between the body image and the body schema. Secondly, the evidences in relevant experiments that prove the body image exists innately. Thirdly, the research of the body image in the framework of intersubjectivity. By a series of symbol-generating castrations(umbilical castration, oral castration, anal castration, the mirror stage, primary castration and Oedipal castration), the children give up some concrete, direct, and forbidden desire, and enter into the symbolic desire that belongs to the humanity. Dolto also discribed the subjects concerned about female sexuality, in which she discussed the themes of the female libido, the female Oedipus complex and the homosexuality in women. Dolto devoted all her life to explore the psychoanalytic skills and the clinical practices and its applications. She developed her own views on psychopathology, stressed on the role of regression within a disturbed relationship between mother and child, and she took into account the family dynamic and the child's place within the family unconscious. Dolto proposed a kind of human education, and attached great importance to the role of parents. According to this idea, she founded the Maison verte and the Neuville school. Towards the end of Dolto's life, her radio programs, listened by parents all over France, established her as an analyst in touch with society and actively engaged in the cause of children. In view of these contributions, Dolto shares the "parental couple to generations of French psychoanalysts" with Jacques Lacan.