IN THE COURSE OF LATENCY : THE LOSS OF MILK TEETH

Helene Compoint (1)

1 CRP-CPO - Centre de Recherche en Psychologie : Cognition, Psychisme et Organisations - UR UPJV 7273

This study aims to analyze a cultural fact : the practice, by parents and children, of rituals accompanying the loss of a child's milk teeth. Our research takes into account both sociological and historical data. We conclude that ritual practices associated with the loss of milk teeth encourage the transformation of the anxiety the child might have felt : a potential anxiety. Therefore, the child's ego does not trigger the anxiety signal, and they have an experience that combines feelings of wonder and of worrying strangeness. This continuum between potential anxiety, a feeling of worrying strangeness, and a feeling of wonder is connected with the formal aspect of the process : a continuum between ``game'' and ``play.''

Domaines: Psychologie

Helene Compoint. IN THE COURSE OF LATENCY : THE LOSS OF MILK TEETH. La psychiatrie de l'enfant, 2019, 62 (1), pp.131-146. ⟨10.3917/psye.621.0131⟩. ⟨hal-03601471⟩