Francoise Dolto and Language ― Book Reviews, Quotes and Comments

FRANCOISE DOLTO AND LANGUAGE is about one of the greatest psychoanalysts the world has known; she was one of the pioneers of child psychoanalysis. Pierre F. Walter interviewed Francoise Dolto in 1986, after having visited "La Maison Verte" in Paris, a communication center she had created for parents and children, that mainly served to prepare children for greater lapses of time away from their parents and the early Kindergarten experience. The interview took place in Dolto's apartment at 260, rue Saint-Jacques, near the Pantheon, Paris. The author reports that he discussed with Dr. Dolto his permissive educational approach and that the dialogue then expanded on Summerhill, R. D. Laing's work with psychotic children in England, compared to Dr. Dolto's own approach to healing child psychosis. Eventually, they discovered a similarity of opinions about the psychoanalytic theories of Alice Miller and Lloyd DeMause. The author relates that Francoise Dolto was by and large critical regarding these authors' almost obsessive stress on 'child protection'. A correspondence followed up to the interview which was published, after Dr. Dolto's death, with the author's permission, by Gallimard Publishers, Paris. The author clarifies Francoise Dolto's position with regard to Freud's theory of the Oedipus Complex and her very clear-cut views and expert opinions on child sexuality. The volume comes with all quotes in the book reviews translated to English by the author, who is bilingual German-French. The quotes collections, however, were intentionally left in their original French version.