Psychanalyse et développements psychiques : le temps à l’épreuve du désir infantile

Abstract

ContextThe keen observation of emotional and behavioural exchanges between a young child and its parents is part of a long tradition initiated by psychoanalysts such as Anna Freud and Melanie Klein. Considering that these interactions are underpinned by parents’ and children's conscious and unconscious fantasies, clinical observations are compatible with psychoanalysis's theoretical elaboration of psychic functioning. This helps to complete the understanding of complex situations taking place at birth and during early childhood. Moreover, a standardised observation of the interactions between the baby and its family, inspired by development psychology, accounts for the baby's or young child's difficulties in regulating its behaviour, and its sensory, attention, motor, or emotional physiological processes, while considering the contextual aspects. The 0–5 classification, of which a French translation is underway, offers a simple photograph of the present moment, always open to modifications and evolution (Miri Keren, 2018). ObjectivesWith this new knowledge of different orientations, we will explore the necessary dialogue between the developmental approaches and the psychoanalytic study of children and parents, considering their compatibilities and their limits. MethodsThe concepts of containing, the psychic skin, “objeu” (the dynamic of presence/absence during play), and attachment – situated on the border of observation and metapsychological elaboration – are examined in this article. They account for the psychic functioning of the child in relation to others and have proved their relevance in the context of normal situations and in psychopathology. ResultsModels in child psychoanalysis have been developed from both a reconstructive perspective and observation. Such contextual, inventive working constructs allow one to think and elaborate the clinical field of the beginnings of psychic life through heuristic fictions. A better knowledge of the child's developmental context, in terms of emotional and tonic-motor regulations, enriches the data collected during consultations. ConclusionsThe transdisciplinary discussion of development alongside individual and family psychoanalytical clinical practice is necessary because, beyond generating innovative concepts, it also prevents conceptual sclerosis. To remain vital and capable of understanding any human activity, a method should adapt itself to the object studied and not the other way around, for example, by considering the subjectivity of the researcher and the clinician as a resource and not as source of errors.