Is it worth betting on psychoanalysis with children?

Some observations on child psychoanalysis

Abstract

This article presents a psychoanalytic analysis based on the clinical case of an 11-year-old child who displays emotional and somatic symptoms, such as stuttering and asthma, resulting from experiences of school bullying. It examines the symptom as an expression of the unconscious truth of the parental couple and the child's subjective position as the object of the mother's desire. It identifies the absence of an operative paternal function as a determining factor in the formation of the symptom and the child's emotional fragility. The discussion draws on Lacanian theory, addressing the specificity of the child's logical time and questioning the dominance of the developmental perspective. The text highlights the analyst's role as a partner in the demand not only of the child but also of the parents, showing how the symptom represents an attempt at subjective inscription in relation to the Other. The analysis offers the child a space to work through suffering and supports the construction of a singular mode of dealing with jouissance and parental fantasies. It reaffirms the legitimacy and singularity of psychoanalytic practice with children, acknowledging its potential to reach the subject of the unconscious from early childhood