Francoise Dolto's legacy:
the child is a person
Jean-Claude Liaudet, Psychoanalyst and
psychologist, France
One of Francoise Dolto's main contributions
was to recognize the child, from its very young age, as a subject in itself, at the
cutting edge of psychoanalysis, which regards the patient as the subject of his or her
unconscious desires. " Our role a psychologists, she said, is not to want something
for somebody, but to be the one through which he may attain his desire."
As a doctor, having carried out an analytical
course of treatment, she would therefore listen to patients in their own right, with the
view that one-year-old children are, in their own way, fully aware of things. By doing
this, she took them out of their infans social status, etymologically the one not entitled
to speak. " It is a scandal to the adult, she said again, that the human being in its
childhood state is its equal."
To Freud, dreams, as well as any pathological
symptom, are languages to be decoded. To Francoise Dolto, the human being is a being of
language, before he even knows how to speak. In its mother's womb, the symbolic function
is already at work on the foetus. This certainty meant that she was able to listen to and
hear what "makes sense" through the body's baby.
To her great astonishment, she discovered
that a word spoken to an unweaned infant who cannot yet speak can have therapeutic
effects. This is why she has always suggested to parents that they talk to the child about
everything that affects it, to "tell it how things really are" right from birth.
Because the worst thing for human beings is that which remains devoid of meaning: that
which has not passed into the language.
To Francoise Dolto, conception is a meeting
of three and not just of two:"On its own each child is brought to life by its desire
to live." The fact that the embryo is still alive and that the mother does not
"miscarry" bears witness to the fact that there is a shared desire for life.
From its conception, the foetus is therefore a human being in the making. It communicates
unconsciously with the mother. The mother's emotional states, like the events that occur,
leave their mark on its psychological life. A mother who "forgets" that she is
pregnant may have a baby that will prove to be psychotic.
Francoise Dolto describes the child's
development as a series of "castrations"(umbilical at birth, oral on weaning,
anal on walking and learning to be clean). Each time, the child has to detach itself from
one world in order to become aware of another world. Each of these castrations is a sort
of test from which the child emerges grown and more human. The parent's responsibility is
to help it successfully overcome them.
With the cutting of the umbilical cord, the
baby relinquishes the state of fusion with the mother and enters the world of light.
Breast-feeding or bottle-feeding do not merely represent the satisfaction of a need for
food, because the unweaned infant is also a being of desires. It is a hand to hand time
and one of communication. This is why "the tongue must be castrated from the breast
so that the child may speak", states Francoise Dolto. In giving up the breast and the
milk, the baby once more relinquishes the state of fusion with its mother. With the
distance and the liberation of the mouth, it acquires the possibility of talking. At this
time, more than at any other, the mother must steep her child in language.
When the child walks, it distances itself
from its mother to explore space. Again it must be held back in its initial autonomy. The
child must learn to be clean when it has acquired sufficient muscular control, and not a
predetermined age and under duress. At this point in time, the parents start to set
prohibitions to protect the child. The first commandment is : thou shalt not harm others
or kill. If they set these sadistically, that is, only oppressively, they do not teach the
child to convert its aggressive impulses into more social desires. These impulses when
merely repressed will be released at the slightest opportunity throughout life with a
cruelty that will have remained infantile.
The discovery of the difference between the
sexes is a loss for any child. Boys understand that they will not bear children like their
mothers, and girls understand they do not have that appendage they initially covet. It is
the age (at approximately three years) at which children try to find out "how babies
are made". Here again, parents' words are essential for integrating what sexuality
is, including pleasure. The child learns that its parents have themselves been created
according to the generational order to which all humans are subject, and that he is a part
of lineage.
It is during this period that the father
becomes all-important with the discovery of his proactive role. Is this to say that the
child has lived until now in a matriarchy? To Francoise Dolto, the father exists to begin
with through the mother (it is he who attends to her needs and distracts her from her the
child, who then experiences the painful and necessary truth that he is everything to her).
At three years, everything is ready for the child to tackle, well or badly, the famous
(Edipus complex, enabling girls and boys to leave the family and enter society.
What is Francoise Dolto's legacy? What she
was expounding fifty years ago, which seemed scandalous or absurd at the time, has become
normal practice. While she had no wish to collect a following, her teaching nevertheless
spread among all those looking after and educating young children, notably through the
educational work to which she personally devoted herself at the end of her life. Nor did
she rest until she reached the general public through her profuse editorial output or live
radio broadcasts in the 70s. She was able, thus, to make psychoanalysis lively and
accessible, seeking to offer parents the opportunity of devising their own methods of
respecting, listening to and trusting their children.
Text courtesy: Label France No 43
April 2001.
The German Government's
national climate protection measure
-Franz Bertsch, Germany
Germany has also played a pioneering role in
the past. That the subject is not only a matter for experts is proven by surveys showing
that 53 % of the Germans see environmental protection as important. Another 41% view it as
"rather important".
Germany will make its contribution to
implementing the Kyoto Protocol within the framework of the EU's burden-sharing system. To
2008/2012, Germany will reduce its emissions of the so-called Kyoto gases (Co2, Co4, N2O,
H-FKW, FKW, SF6) by a total of 21 % compared with 1990. As the German Environmental
Minister explained last February when presenting the report 'Data on the Environment- The
State of the Environment in Germany in 2000,' Germany has already fulfilled the Kyoto
obligations, on the basis of the six gases named above, by clearly more than 80%. The
Federal Republic", Trittin emphasized, "stands by its trailblazing roe in the
climate protection process and will continue to pursue it actively".
Germany currently produces about 4 % of the
total global CO2 emissions. With a more than 15% reduction of Carbon-dioxide emission to
2000 compared with 1990, Germany is the frontrunner in the climate protection. The
government targets a 25% reduction of emission of CO2, the main greenhouse gas, to 2005.
By the end of 2000, Germany had cut CO2 by 180 million tonnes more than the whole of
Europe combined, even though its emission rate last year increased by 0.2%. Since taking
office at the end of 1998 the Federal Government has adopted a series of measures to
further improve Germany's climate protection efforts. These include an ecological tax
reform, a Renewable Energy Act, a 100,000-roof solar power program, a DM 200 million
market launch program for renewable energies, and the introduction of low-or
non-sulphurous fuels.
In October 2000 the government defined its
climate protection targets for the next few years. The cabinet approved a national climate
protection program aimed at a further reduction of CO2 emissions by up to 70 million
tonnes to 2005. This target is to be achieved by a package of measures. These include: the
rehabilitation of old buildings (a saving of 5-7 million tonnes); transport sector
measures (15-20 million tonnes); expansion of co-generation of power and heating (saving
to 2005: 10 million tonnes; to 2010: 23 million tonnes); a doubling of the proportion of
renewable energy to 2010; voluntary self-obligation by German industry from November 2000
to save an additional 10 million tonnes and the reduction of six greenhouse gases by a
further 10 million tonnes to 2012.
The 'Agreement Between the Government of the
Federal Republic of Germany and German Industry on climate Precautions' places the former,
one-sided statements of the government and industry on a common basis. The internationally
exemplary accord covers 80 % of the energy consumption of industry as well as large
sections of domestic house holds. Observance of the agreement will be monitored by an
independent economic institute funded by both sides.
The Federal Government has also for the first
time formulated targets related to technology and source of energy. These include a
doubling of the use of renewable energy during the present decade and further expansion of
co-generation of power and heating.
Due alone to its decision to double the
proportion of electricity produced by co-generation to 2010 (basis year: 1998), the
government expects a knock-on employment effect that will provide more than 10,000 jobs.
In addition, the respected Prognos research institute said in a study on 'Jobs and Climate
Protection' published in March this year that it expects the government's planned climate
protection measures as a whole to generate about 150,000 jobs by 2005, especially in the
building industry and mechanical engineering. There was a lively discussion in Germany
back in the 1980s on the possibilities of linking environmental protection and economic
growth- and in its wake creating jobs. That Environmental researcher Ernst Ulrich von
Weizascker's book, 'Earth Policy. Ecological Realpolitik on the Threshold of the Century
of the Environment', in which he presented concepts for mutual promotion of environmental
protection and economic growth, reached the bestseller lists as early as the end of the
1980s proves the continuity and intensity of German public interest in the subject. The
result of adopting appropriate new methods of production, products and technologies is
that Germany is now the world leader in the environmental technology sector. That applies
equally to expansion of the use of renewable energy and the development of low-emission
motor vehicle engine technologies and energy saving appliances. Linking environmental
protection and industry has a model character in view of the in part strong economic
grrowth in many developing and threshold countries. If further economic growth in what are
still underdeveloped countries were to match the current level of the technologies there,
the climate protection targets discussed at the UN conferences would be totally illusory.
In particular in the third part of their
study, tabled in Accra, the IPCC experts underlined that recent years had seen the
development of a great number of efficient technologies to improve the use of energy,
sustainable strategies in handling resources and intelligent techniques to reduce
emissions of harmful gases. The experts said they believed that many of the new technical
and economic options could be implemented even free of charge or at a profit. However,
despite the notable successes in the environmental technologies sector, the German
government warns firmly against harboring too-cozy illusions. Its perhaps even more
important" said minister Trittin in his comment on the UN study, " that the
people in the industrialized nations also change their patterns of behavior and
consumption". The government has signaled that it is prepared to lead the way on
climate protection by setting its own spheres of activity that target of reducing their
CO2 emissions by 30% by 2010 compared to the level of 1990.
Text courtesy: IN-PRESS ST3 2001.
THE PALESTINIAN AUTHORITY'S
STRATEGY OF LIES
By Ami Mahal
Over the years, the dissemination of lies by the Palestinian Authority (PA) has been an
inseparable part of their struggle against the State of Israel. Falsehoods and fictitious
claims are made on a systematic basis, and Israel is required to respond to these lies,
despite their patently false nature. Palestinian allegations are broadcast in the world
media, and in the final analysis, they achieve their goal. These claims make an impact,
partly because subsequent Israeli denials often go unheard amidst the noise made by
sensationalist but baseless allegations. Furthermore, the notion of "no smoke without
fire" is popular in certain circles, particularly where Israel is involved.
This Palestinian strategy may be sub-divided into three categories:
1. Deny, deny, deny: Whenever an incident
that could prove embarrassing takes place, Palestinian
responsibility is first and foremost denied. Sometimes there is even a denial that the
incident ever happened.
There have been a number of prominent examples from recent months: Following the terrorist
attack on February 14th, in which a Palestinian driver deliberately ran his bus over
Israeli citizens, Arafat denied that the incident constituted a terrorist attack, claiming
that it was an accident despite all evidence to the contrary.
* When the Israeli-Arab journalist Youssef
Samir disappeared, Israel demanded that the Palestinian security forces in Bethlehem
release him. The PA issued a statement saying that Samir had been in their custody, but
was released after 24 hours, and that they were now unaware of his fate. A number of weeks
later, Samir was freed, and * only then did it become clear that he had been in the hands
of the Palestinian security forces throughout this period.
* Following the terrorist murder of a Greek
Orthodox monk on the Maaleh Adumim road on June 12th, the PLO Mission in Athens was quick
to issue a press statement claiming that Israel was responsible for the murder. In fact,
as it turned out, the terrorists behind the murder were Fatah members under the command of
Marwan Bargouti.
* Following the June 22nd car bomb explosion in the Dugit area, in the north of the Gaza
Strip, in which two IDF soldiers were killed, the Palestinians wasted no time in claiming
that the two were killed in a training accident. A short time later, the Hamas
organization took responsibility for the terrorist attack.
2. Claims designed to intensify the demonization of Israel.
The most prominent case of recent weeks was the poisoned sweets fable, in which it was
claimed that Israel had been distributing poisoned candy throughout Gaza. This isn't the
first time that such allegations have been made. Indeed, there is no shortage of such
claims. Later on, Israel was confronted with the story of the poisoning of wells in
Samaria and the allegations that Israel was deliberately spreading the AIDS virus among
Palestinians - accusations that, in the course of time, were conclusively proven to be
absurd.
A few months ago, the Palestinians accused Israel of using ammunition containing depleted
uranium and black gas grenades. The accusation relating to depleted uranium was apparently
inspired by the fact that this is an issue that has come to the world's attention,
following revelations of the use of depleted uranium by NATO forces in Kosovo. The problem
with this claim is that the IDF has never used this type of ammunition on the ground.
Moreover, depleted uranium is used in armor-piercing shells and, fortunately, the
Palestinians do not have armor.
3. Denial of the right of the State of Israel, and indeed of all the Jewish people, to the
land of Israel and, concomitantly, denial of the Holocaust. According to this claim, if
there were no Holocaust, then there would be no need to give "Palestine" to the
Jews as compensation. But the Holocaust did happen, and the phenomenon of the Palestinians
joining forces with neo-nazis around the world should ring alarm bells among all
supporters of democracy throughout the world.
Another example is the denial of the Jewish connection to the Temple Mount, by denying the
existence of the Temple. This common Palestinian claim is very problematic - not just for
the Jewish people - because it undermines the foundations of the Christian religion. For
if the Temple never existed,
then the traditions concerning Jesus and his life must also be questioned. In this
context, the Mufti, Sheikh Ikrima Sabri, recently issued a ruling stating that the Western
Wall ("Wailing Wall") is an Islamic Wakf (property), and that the Jews cry at
the wall because Mohammed was an Arab and not a Jew (and not to mourn the destruction of
the Temple). The perpetuation of Palestinian falsehoods through religious rulings is
particularly dangerous, because it transfers the struggle from the national realm to the
religious realm.
In order to reach understanding and an
agreement, the Palestinians must put an end to their strategy of lies. They must not base
their self-definition on the denial of another people's right to the same piece of land.
This path will not lead them to peace. It will lead them instead to further conflict,
which is exactly what Israel is trying to avoid. Moreover, the Palestinian youth are being
educated on the basis of these
lies, and are led to believe that these are truths. We should not be afraid to accurately
define this phenomenon - this is dangerous and inflammatory incitement. The examples
presented above are but a few of the many lies spread by the Palestinian leadership. These
lies - big and small - serve one purpose: the demonization and de-legitimization of the
"enemy", Israel. In Palestinian eyes, the use of falsehoods would appear to be a
legitimate weapon, and often an effective one. However, as Abraham Lincoln once observed,
"you can fool all the people some of the time, and some of the people all the time,
but you cannot fool all the people all the time."
A lie always serves to cover up a painful truth. |
