Françoise Dolto (1908-1988)

Abstract

Françoise Dolto, a French psychoanalyst of the twentieth century, has an important role not only in the history of the psychoanalytic movement but also in the history of education, because she gives new attention to early childhood starting from the encounter between psychoanalysis and pediatrics. Her interest in education matured during the sixties of the twentieth century when she understood the importance of prevention in the treatment of pathologies of children, teenagers and adults. Her pedagogy has a non-traditional and transdisciplinary approach and is defined as "education medicine", where education is a search for truth and a commitment, for the adults, to establish a relationship based on listening to the other, to the person that the child is. Dolto’s best heredity is the Maison Verte, now spread around the world, also in Italy, with the aim to disseminate the theories and the clinical practices born from her activities.