The insane, the child, and the analyst: contributions of Maud Mannoni to psychoanalysis

Abstract

We aim to point out to the major contributions of Maud Mannoni in the history of psychoanalysis. For this, we want mention to the influences that marked its trajectory and the key aspects of her work: the conceptions of madness and the child. The idea is to try to understand how these aspects, being repeated, get a fundamental importance for the reading of her work. It summons for two questions: Why the child and the insane? In what does the psychiatric issue and the place of the analyst are related? In this way we will try to discuss about the rupture Maud Mannoni operated in the clash caught by her against the Psychiatry and psychiatric institutions, and their relationship with the place of analyst in the clinic with children.