Maud Mannoni; Adolescent Psychoanalyst

Maud Mannoni, 74, the French psychoanalyst who questioned long-held ideas about mental retardation. Mannoni and French analyst Jacques Lacan founded the Ecole Freudienne de Paris, which broke away from traditional Freudian analysis. Five years later, she established an experimental home for troubled adolescents. Although she devoted most of her work to autistic and psychotic adolescents, her studies on language and the unconscious influenced generations of scholars and researchers. Her first book, “The Retarded Child and Its Mother,” published in 1964, challenged the idea that retardation was a birth defect. Her other books included “A Place to Live,” “Impossible Upbringing” and “The First Appointment With the Psychoanalyst.” In Paris on Sunday of a heart attack.