Flower Dolls - Essays in Child Psychotherapy (Paperback)

A fascinating glimpse into the minds of children.

Collected together for the first time are some of the essays, papers and studies that launched Francoise Dolto on her spectacular career as one of Europe's most outstanding Freudian child psychologists. Written over a thirty-year period, from 1946 -- 1978, they cover everything from Dolto's clinical field work, including her revolutionary techniques in child therapy, to some of her theoretical reconsideration of Oedipal malformations of body image, identification with the mother and the formulation of love in the newborn child.

Her fascinating book shows how young children will point at, draw and tell stories about fears and desires for which they lack the words to express themselves. Dolto stresses that, although a newborn infant may be a bundle of needs, a figure of helplessness, desire already has its place in the lives of very young children.