Enveloppes et pulsions dans la clinique infantile : analyse de la psychothérapie d’un bébé sourd

This article is part of a doctoral thesis in psychopathology and psychoanalysis that deals with the study of the emergence of the subject in deaf babies. In clinical practice with infants, we seek to articulate the psychoanalytical field of envelopes with that of the theory of drives. We present a clinical analysis of the psychoanalytical psychotherapy of a 15-month-old baby, born with extreme prematurity, deafness, and associated disorders. The sessions of this psychotherapy were filmed by a co-therapist. This article is based on the micro-analysis of these films, and on the tension created between our different theoretical references. We note the entanglement of the looping of the drive circuit with the constitution of the envelopes, and demonstrate how the envelope comes to constitute a therapeutic lever for this baby. This reflection, carried out at the crossroads of two psychoanalytic approaches, allows us to return to Freudian psychoanalytic concepts that shed light on the question of the emergence of the subject.