Abstract EN:

For a full nine months, a young man claimed he had found 110 small stone figures among the rubble of the excavation of an underground car park. Because of their appearance and pathological deformations, many scholars were led to believe that they were outstanding gallo-roman ex-votos. The affair was greatly talked of and all the media made the most of it. After an investigation by the police, the young man admitted those pieces had not been found but instead carved by himself. He was convicted of forgery. Through these stone objects added to numerous conversations with their creator, the author of the thesis means to show that the 110 figures are in reality the fruits of oneiric frenzy as well as the projections of a phase of delirium. The statuettes reflect their creator's pathological disorders and his fantasms, both expressed with his own hands : a longing for a child, traumas of childhood, social repression etc. All this within a state of psychopathological deficiency. In the thesis are also analysed transference and counter-transference plus their curative effects, since the young man appears to be cured subsequently to talking about himself over years. The author also examines the relations betwwen these statuett6es and the works known as primitive, either ancient (gallo-roman) or present (raw art) as well as the stir this affair created in public opinion.