The author examines the case of “withdrawal” academically and socially in France, and its consequences on family configurations for young people who are often diagnosed school or generally socially phobic or depressed. On arriving at the door of the school or college, a child suffers from stomach aches or headaches forcing him to turn back, the family has to try to understand the somatic symptoms and justify these to the institution and peers. Several questions arise then: is the school responsible? How much of responsibility is the family’s? What will happen when children are temporarily out of school? How is this withdrawal from the “ordinary” world perceived and lived in the family? How are families then brought to reorganise their entire functioning around this situation? This leads to problematising “normal” family functioning and the child-student in his relationship to socialisation and learning.