Our aim is to think about the possible traumatic transmission from mother to child who has not been directly exposed to traumatizing events. We propose a clinical case: Étoile escaped from Nigeria, threatened by her father's murderous madness. He had attempted against her mother and sister's life for religion reasons. In France, she gave birth to a girl. In front of the gravity of the traumatic symptoms, psychotherapy is proposed. Its purpose, besides the care, is the prevention with the child. The frame of the care is ethno-psychiatric. The complementary approach (anthropology and psychoanalysis) allowed taking into account psychic and cultural elements of the story of the mother to try to build a sense and to understand the place of the child in the psychic economy of the mother. We try to bring to light the possible springs of the traumatic transmission in the relationship mother-baby. We suggest approaching this question by means of the analysis of counter-transference, according to the approach proposed by Lachal; analysis of counter-transference of therapist in the couple mother-child would allow understanding what takes place between the mother and the child. We deepen this hypothesis by the study of the emergent scenario in ethno-psychoanalytical frame. © 2007 Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.

transmission Emergent scenario Counter-transference Traumatized mother Ethno-psychiatry prevention trauma

patient care maternal care counter transference psychotrauma prophylaxis ethnology religion psychoanalysis Article France psychotherapy human emergency care