ABSTRACT
In this chapter, the author describes some theoretical elements for understanding the case study, before presenting the teaching situation, and a particular episode with Margot is analysed. In the case study, she focuses on how a teacher might use and develop mother “thought-thinking apparatus” in order to cope with the psychic challenges arising in class. The author highlights how psychoanalytic theory can be used in the study and understanding of the relationships and psychic processes at work in the educational experience of a primary school teacher. The talking process refers to the group work, which offered an appropriate space to share professional difficulties, to be listened to, and to disentangle some of the muddle of the teaching situation. Blanchard-Laville’s research findings have challenged the simplistic association between professional suffering and personal incompetence. The author theoretical background is that of French clinical research undertaken within a psychoanalytically informed approach in the field of education and training.
