ABSTRACT
Francoise Dolto is a more popular and better known psychoanalyst among the general public in France than Jacques Lacan. Francoise Dolto brought to her work with children the formative years of her own childhood. Francoise Dolto accepted that parents could have an important role in the treatment of children. Francoise Dolto considered herself to be focused on the psychopathology of everyday life, while she viewed Melanie Klein’s interests as being more in understanding psychosis. Francoise Dolto was impressed by Melanie Klein’s personality and charisma, but considered that she was not doing psychoanalysis, but psychotherapy. For Francoise Dolto, the role of the father in cutting the umbilical cord is one of the first castrations that a child experiences. For Francoise Dolto, language is what differentiates human beings from other forms of life. Francoise Dolto distinguishes between pre-oedipal drawings and post-oedipal drawings. Francoise Dolto was interested in the normal development of a child, as she was by unusual psychopathological manifestations.
