« Les enfants terribles ». Child psychiatry to the rescue of the family : professor George Heuyer's consultation in 1950 In 1925, Dr Heuyer created the neuro-psychiatric service the first building block in the construction of the « inadapted children » sector. Previously restricted to the psychiatric examination of juvenile offenders, the consultation was opened to a larger group of families and children during the inter-war period. The concept of inadapted childhood has evolved progressively under the influence of psychiatry. In 1950, Pr Heuyer's consultation sees angry, anxious and nervous children as well as those suffering from severe mental retardation. From its beginnings, the clinic acts as a “sorting post” and offers care and orientation for children. Georges Heuyer and his colleagues used new investigatory techniques from the nineteen twenties on, for diagnosis and treatment of the presenting pathologies. A laboratory of psychology was created. Sophie Morgenstern, psychoanalist inspired by Freud's work, introduced seances of psychotherapy within the clinic. After the war, Serge Lebovici, a student of Sophie Morgenstern, attempted an experiment in collective psychotherapy. While it is clear that the clinic was innovatory in many ways, in some it maintained archaic reflexes. Automatic placement of the children in medicalised educational institutes or in sanatoriums was a frequent attitude among doctors. This type of decision seems to have been taken more often to relieve the families than for the treatment of the child's presenting pathology.