Starting from an experiment she coordinated among a group of educational psychologists, the author reflects on psychological intervention programmes. Following the group's questions, she organises her reflection along three main lines: the function of the institution, the function of the reference theories, and the nature of the process involved in those programmes. As far as the first two points
... [Show full abstract] are concerned, the clinical psychologist's practice appears paradoxical. The first paradox is that the institution does not acknowledge him or her as a promoter of subjectivity; the second concerns the lack of articulation of the relationship with theory, i.e. psychoanalytical theory. After questioning those paradoxes, which cannot be resolved, the author shows that the specific action of clinical psychologists can have a legitimate place, providing they ponder deeply on the meaning of their intervention, and ground their reflection on transitional analysis, as it has been defined by several French authors, in reference to Winnicott: the transition period as well as the transitional area.