About child perversion

Certain relational aspects of child psychosis can affect professionals, leading them to refer to a child as « perverse », more colloquially rather than in a true diagnostic sense, i.e. in response to what is felt as disturbing. Knowing whether the child is incapable of consenting to castration, or is in denial of the latter, is only possible through a very detailed clinical analysis of the child’s subjective positioning. An analysis of Hadrien’s speech and the way he positions himself, regarding the almighty maternal Other and is confronted with the lack of inscription of the paternal Law, enables us to perceive how his quest and searching sollicits the carers in their own rapport with castration and the trace left by the latter of what the carers have accepted as a loss.