The Case of Dominique

This is a review of the newly reissued case of an adolescent, Dominique, by the French psychoanalyst, Françoise Dolto. While a household name throughout France, her work in general has only recently begun to be translated into English. This case, however, was surprisingly translated and published a few years after its original publication in France in 1971, only to then fall out-of-print. It was reviewed only once in The Psychoanalytic Quarterly and viciously denounced. Going over the case in detail, as well as Dolto’s method, the stakes of a child who is considered autistic and psychotic are revealed by Dominique, including a history of traumatic loss and exposure to the confused effects of political violence in his family. Surprisingly contemporary, I speculate on what went wrong in the reception of its initial publication and what this has to do with psychoanalytic institutions and politics.