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 She also drew a fundamental distinction between two autistic groups: an ‘encapsulated’ group, which is withdrawn and non-verbal, and an ‘entangled’ group, who are hyperactive and chaotic but have some language.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
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... who contributed to the retirement present for me initiated by Dr Victoria Hamilton and Dilys Daws. This enabled me to revise this book in financial comfort. C FOREWORD TO THE ROUTLEDGE LASSICS EDITION Frances Tustin's ground-breaking.
... present edition follows that revision, and presents Tustin's considered recapitulation of her life's work. Autistic States is unusual among Tustin's books in being based on a series of lectures she gave in Rome, so that the long ...
... present chapter will deal with the more general implications of the changes. REASONS. FOR. THE. REVISIONS. After many years of working with a certain type of autistic child, and after attempts to digest this experience by writing books and ...
... present available. If this had been present, it would seem that it would have been possible to modify it by the type of psychotherapy that was used. I have come to realise that autism may arise in several different situations: for ...
... present view, autism is a protective system of perverse reactions, provoked by a traumatic experience of bodily separateness, and is not a defensive regression to a so-called normal autistic stage of infantile development. Figure 2.1 ...
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 | |