In order to show what "knowing" means in the theory and practice of psychoanalysis, in contrast to objective scientific "knowledge", this book proposes a "rediscovery" of certain psychiatric and psychoanalytic texts through patient accounts. The well-known and prestigious French psychoanalyst Maud Mannoni, disciple and colleague of Jacques Lacan for many years, resumes and discusses here issues such as the legal status of hysteria or the clinical cases of Freud, where the founder of psychoanalysis is seen more at ease in the company of the Man of rats than in that of insolent adolescents.
A very instructive chapter is devoted to a reflection on the difference between the psychoanalytic technique with children practiced by Francoise Dolto and that used by Serge Lebovici. Finally, the author raises a number of questions concerning the training of analysts and, by way of conclusion, insists that the unconscious is the one to know that it is not known that we can only access through analysis.