»This article presents some recent developments in the theory of transmission. The author recalls the earliest contributions to this theory ; traumas endured by ancestors may be the source of the trouble, especially if they were experienced as shameful by the descendants and kept secret. But transmission has a structuring character for everyone; it is the basis for the establishment of the law, for the set-up of the family and for the attachment to ideals. Founding an essential axis for ethics, the notion of responsibility is also inscribed in a process of transmission. The author suggests that the parents’ gift to and the attitude toward their child plays a role in this, by giving impetus to acknowledgement in the child, in both senses of the word: that of gratitude and that of identifying the other as different.»