53

The abuse and neglect of young children has become a public health issue in France. After a historical overview of the issue, this paper briefly describes the French situation in terms of the abuse and neglect of young children, along with the various types of factors that lead to different kinds of abuse and/or neglect. The aim of this article is to emphasize the scope of this phenomenon, a phenomenon that has become a public health issue. The predominance of fatal violence against babies, in light of the singular clinical aspect of each case, leads us to identify the persistence of an underlying fantasy of infanticide in the abuse that results in the death of babies. The hypothesis is that this kind of fantasy is universal and inherent to maternity. Two clinical cases are presented, along with an ongoing study on the abuse and neglect of infants aged 0-3 years.