ABSTRACT
Francoise Dolto published The Unconscious Image of the Body in 1984, at a time when she was no longer seeing patients and had limited her activity to supervising analysts. She also thought of The Unconscious Image of the Body as a legacy for her students and a wider audience interested in the theories that she had forged and whose ramifications have undoubtedly yet to be exhausted. Dolto’s theory was elaborated over thirty years of clinical practice and theoretical work. Thus, Francoise Dolto posited a “metapsychology of infantile development” positioned before the Oedipal complex. Dolto distinguishes first of all the image of the body from the body schema. For Francoise Dolto, language—true language that conveys meaning for the subject—is always closely connected with the body. For Dolto, anal castration goes far beyond the mere acquisition of cleanliness.
