Paul Klee, Ventriloquist and Crier in the Moor, 1923

Workshop on Child Analysis 

Are There No More Psychotic Children? — Catherine Vanier 

Friday, April 11, 2025
6:30 PM – 8:30 PM (ET)

The DSM tells us that child psychosis no longer exists. Structures are erased and replaced by symptoms, categorized into “disorders.” The “handicapped” child requires exclusively rehabilitative care. Through clinical examples, we'll see how, for psychoanalysis, the diagnosis of psychosis retains all its relevance, even if the identification of structures is complicated by the patient's age. Following the teachings of Freud and Lacan, we’ll find our way through the constitution of structure, of fantasy, and the place of the child in its relationship with the Other and with reality.

Suggested readings: Lacan: Seminars V, 1957-8, Formations of the Unconscious and XIV, 1966-7, The Logic of the Phantasm. Mannoni, Maud: The Backward Child and His Mother: A Psychoanalytic Study (1964/1972); The Child, His ‘Illness,’ and the Others (1967/ 1970).

Location: In-person in NYC and online via Zoom.

Fee: $40. For students with ID: $20. Registration details to follow. 

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Catherine Vanier practices psychoanalysis in Paris. She is a member of Espace Analytique, heads L’École Expérimentale de Bonneuil-sur-Marne, and is a faculty member of Après-Coup Psychoanalytic Association. Besides many books in French, she has published in English (as Catherine Mathelin) Lacanian Psychotherapy with Children: The Broken Piano, and (as Catherine Vanier) Premature Birth: The Baby, the Doctor and the Psychoanalyst (1917, Karnac Press).