Towards a dialogue between psychoanalysis and neuroscience: connections that are both possible and necessary

The author, a child psychiatrist, calls for a dialogue between psychoanalysis and neuroscience (both from his clinical joint practices with neuropediatricians and on a theoretical level) to found a new approach to the questions of neurodevelopmental and psychopathological disorders. He briefly discusses two examples. The first example is developmental and concerns the links between the archaic grasping reflex and adhesive identification. He shows how the phenomena observed in the two fields can find a logical sequence. The second example concerns a therapeutic technique (wrapping) that is used to soothe self-injurious behaviours in children with autism. Here, again, both approaches are used to better understand the phenomenon in question. Bridges must be built to open new theoretico-clinical and therapeutic collaborations. One could imagine data integration from these two heterogeneous subdomains to form a new complex subdomain, from which productivity is guaranteed.