The Psychology Book

DEVELOPMENTAL PSYCHOLOGY 279

See also: Sigmund Freud 92–99 ■ Alfred Adler 100–01 ■ Jacques Lacan 122–23 ■

Daniel Lagache 336–37

F

ollowing her own difficult

childhood, French physician

and psychoanalyst Françoise

Dolto decided that her work should

help children discover and release

their desires, believing that this

release would prevent neuroses.

She felt that some of the illnesses

commonly manifested by children

were, in reality, reflections of a

lack of connection between parents

and their offspring. Adults, she

observed, often seemed unable to

understand children, in spite of

once being children themselves.

Unique perspective

Dolto believed that every child

possesses a unique perspective,

which traditional education seeks

to stifle. She condemned any

system of morality or education

that seeks to control children

through obedience or imitation,

and was dissatisfied with the

techniques being used, both at

school and at home, to anticipate

a child’s future when that future

is fundamentally unknowable.

Children, she stated, are different

from the adults who teach them,

simply because they must have

had experiences that the older

generation could never have had

when they were that age.

For Dolto, the goal of education

was to allow each child the freedom

to explore his individual inclination.

The adult, she believed, should

serve as a role model, offering an

example rather than attempting to

impart a method. The educator’s

role, Dolto declared, was to teach

children how to lead themselves. ■

W E P R E P A R E C H I L D R E N

FOR A LIFE ABOUT WHOSE

COURSE WE KNOW NOTHING

FRANCOISE DOLTO (1908–1988)

IN CONTEXT

APPROACH
Psychoanalysis

BEFORE
1924 Sigmund Freud theorizes
about the castration anxiety
children face, which Dolto says
is a factor in our unconscious
image of our own bodies.

1969 Jacques Lacan
investigates “otherness,”
which becomes central to
Dolto’s work focusing on the
distinctiveness of individuals.

AFTER
1973 A school based on
Dolto’s theories opens in La
Neuville-du-Bosc, France,
emphasizing well-being and
non-compulsory activities.

1978 La Maison Verte, a
daycare center based on
Dolto’s ideas, opens in Paris,
with the aim of helping
parents and children to
minimize the adverse
effects of separation.

It is too late to

make a difference

with adults; the work has

to be done with children.

Françoise Dolto