Working Psychoanalytically with Infants: From Françoise Dolto to Zhuang Zhou

Working Psychoanalytically with Infants: From Francoise Dolto to Zhuang Zhou explores several case studies from Nicole Yvert Coursilly’s work in French care homes, providing psychoanalytic treatment to babies who had suffered traumatic experiences.

The book describes the clinical sessions in detail, as well as their surprisingly rapid beneficial effects. Coursilly explores the importance of body-language when working with pre-verbal children and shows how work with infants can help bolster an analyst’s skill when working with older children and adolescents. The case studies include work with babies under the age of 1, as well as toddlers. The author introduces the work of philosophers and analysts throughout, to illustrate her ideas.

This enlightening book will be of interest to all practicing and training psychoanalysts, as well as child psychotherapists, psychiatrists and care workers.

Nicole Yvert Coursilly is a psychoanalyst in private practice based in Paris, France. She has worked as a clinician in the public sector and in non-profit organisations for thirty years, and as a psychoanalytic psychotherapist in psychiatric hospitals for both children and adults. She is former president of Espace-Enfance, an association for the training of personnel specialised in early childhood.