Se construire avec un handicap. L'au-delà du développement : un destin ?

Children who undertake the task of self-construction in the presence of a handicap may be confronted by: 1) early inabilities which can result in a lack of early sensory experiences, thus resulting in retardation in the development of sociocognitive skills, although it is also likely that, paradoxically, they favour the development of early cognitive and linguistic skills. This, for example, is the case of children suffering from an Spinal Muscular Atrophy; 2) conflicts relating to the nature of the parent-child relationship: a level of attachment that is flawed or tarnished may result in the emergence of mental and behavioural conduct that is not authentic and based on a false self, emotional distance and disguised anger; 3) conflicts relating to unconscious sexuality. This is a fact inherent to the human condition; the central core of this type of conflict consists of the myth underlying the Oedipus complex. It is inseparable from the conflict of ambivalence between the child and his or her partners that involves the key role of unconscious processes and imagination during development; phantoms and transmission between generations. These 4 elements have been repeatedly observed in the development of children suffering from a handicap and are liable to influence the way they construct their representations of themselves, their representations of others and their representations of their relations with others.