Autistic States in ChildrenFrances Tustin (1913-1994) was one of the first professionally trained child psychotherapists in Britain. Although internationally recognised for her pioneering therapeutic work with autistic children, her approach is considered by some to be controversial, as her psychogenic view of childhood autism challenged the belief that it is biological and genetic. Autistic States in Children is widely regarded as a vitally important work for understanding the causes of autism in young children. Vividly describing her clinical encounters with autistic children, Tustin argued that autistic states were above all self-protective ones. In her observational studies, she noted how autistic children's interaction with physical objects, such as keys, toy cars, or other play items, had a rigid and ritualistic quality, far removed from the typical kind of fantasy play seen in other children. Such objects are not used by autistic children for their intended purpose, Tustin argued, but rather in sensation-dominated ways that interfere with mental development. She also drew a fundamental distinction between two autistic groups: an ‘encapsulated’ group, which is withdrawn and non-verbal, and an ‘entangled’ group, who are hyperactive and chaotic but have some language. Autistic States in Children influenced not only those in psychotherapy and psychoanalysis but countless others who have contact with autistic children, especially families, and remains essential reading for anyone seeking a creative and compelling understanding of autism. This Routledge Classics edition includes a new Foreword by Maria Rhode. |
From inside the book
Results 1-5 of 41
... hole with a nasty prick' (Tustin 1966). Another patient whom she described in her first book, Autism and Childhood Psychosis (Tustin 1972), was 10-year-old David, who constructed a suit of armour to keep himself safe. This led her to ...
... hole' associated with elemental panic and rage about the seeming loss of part of his body. Dr Victoria Hamilton, who has usefully defined the term 'trauma', writes as follows: The word trauma should be reserved for responses to events ...
... hole of her emptiness and loneliness. In my experience, such a mother is under-confident, bewildered, deprived, and/or depressed, or she may have experienced a shock, tragedy or bereavement around the time of the child's birth. Such a ...
... hole where the nipple should have been. The infant, although sitting on her lap, is cut off from touching her by the swathes which cover its body. Instead of a mouth, it has a cork-like protrusion. This protrusion would block the flow ...
... hole' catastrophe of sudden and alarming awareness of separateness from the body of a mother with whom there had been fusion and a sense of being inanimate. Perhaps Moore had always been working against 'this backward pull to the ...
Contents
Autosensuous aspects of psychogenic childhood psychosis | |
Autogenerated encapsulation | |
Autistic objects | |
Confusional objects | |
The asymbolic nature of autosensuous states | |
Awareness in autistic states | |
Psychotherapy with autistic states in children | |
Transference phenomena in autistic states | |
16 | |
Thinkings | |
Confusional entanglement | |
Autosensuousness as a basis for classification of psychogenic childhood psychosis | |
Psychodynamics and treatment of autistic states | |
The pathological operation of autosensuousness | |
Psychological birth and psychological catastrophe | |
The struggles of an autistic child to develop a mind of his | |
Autistic elements in neurotic disorders of childhood | |
Concluding remarks | |
Index | |