A general practitioner by training, specializing in pediatrics, Catherine Dolto is also a practitioner in haptonomy. In her Parisian practice, she receives couples for pre- and post-natal support, as well as adults, children and families. In the 1990s, in collaboration with children's publisher Colline Faure-Poirée, she imagined the “Mine de rien” collection which today includes nearly a hundred titles, translated internationally.
This fall, the editions Gallimard Jeunesse Giboulées give birth to the “little sister” of the “Mine de rien” collection, or should we say the “big sister” since this new collection, named “Rue Mine de Rien”, is aimed at child readers, from 7 to 11 years old. The first two opuses “The Colibri family is moving in” and “Who owns Mimicha?” » have been available in bookstores since November 7. Others will follow. Interview with Catherine Dolto.
How did your mother, Françoise Dolto, influence your practice?
My mother and I had a very happy and strong relationship. We exchanged a lot, I learned a lot alongside him and my practice, inevitably, was largely influenced by his work. During my medical studies, I attended his public consultation for a year at Trousseau Hospital, which was an absolutely wonderful training space for young analysts. I also worked for his radio show “When the child appears” on France Inter. We also co-wrote together the work “Paroles pour adolescents”, which was published in 1988 (new edition in 2018, Gallimard Jeunesse Giboulées).
In the two collections “Mine de Rien” and “Rue mine de Rien”, you tackle subjects of everyday life by speaking directly to children, through the prism of your double, “Dr Cat”…
In the “Mine de Rien” collection, I actually appeared in the guise of Dr. Cat but only at the end of the work and speaking to children as I can do with my young patients in my office. The new thing in the “Rue Mine de Rien” collection is that Dr. Cat is a character in her own right from the comic strip. Like all of the young protagonists, she lives in the building at 17 rue Mine de Rien and she even has her psychotherapist's office on the ground floor. However, the relationship she maintains with the children is not of a professional nature but rather of a friendly nature, as there are adult-child friendships. She is their ally.
Children, you say, need other educational figures than their parents…
Indeed, it was the Malian writer and ethnologist Amadou Hampâté Bâ who declared that it takes “an entire village to raise a child”. Children need adults they can trust, who are caring, who have experience, who know how to listen to them, and in whom their parents also have complete confidence. This figure can also serve as an intermediary between children and parents if necessary… This is what Dr. Cat does in this new collection through her blog where she shares with adults her feedback from experience with the children.
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