Vol. 3 No. 2 (2021): July - December 2021
Opinion article

The psychodynamic approach to understanding and treating autism

pdf (Italiano)
  • Marta Luongo
Marta Luongo
Centro Medico Diagnostico Baby & Mother Care, diretto da Prof. Dott. Vittorio Tripodi
DOI: https://doi.org/10.32069/PJ.2021.2.133

Published 2021-10-22

Keywords

  • psychoanalisis,
  • symbol

How to Cite

Luongo, M. (2021). The psychodynamic approach to understanding and treating autism. Phenomena Journal - International Journal of Psychopathology, Neuroscience and Psychotherapy, 3(2), 116–130. https://doi.org/10.32069/PJ.2021.2.133
Copyright Notice

Abstract


The interest in deepening the psychodynamic approach for understanding and treating autism derives, in particular, from the study of the psychoanalytic contribution relating to infantile psychosis, by Melanie Klein. Even before the definition of a specific pathological syndrome, in 1943, by Leo Kanner who, first, spoke of "early childhood autism", the Hungarian psychoanalyst describes in the Thirties of the Twentieth century, a case that she calls infantile psychosis and which today would be diagnosed as autism. Even today, the insights and therapeutic methodologies illustrated in her famous article "The importance of Symbol-Formation in the Development of the Ego", in which she illustrates the case of little Dick, prove to be precious for the understanding and treatment of autistic patients.

It is, therefore, to Melanie Klein that we are indebted for the most illuminating and pioneering description of autism. Her thought has aroused considerable interest from many psychoanalysts including Donald Meltzer, Wilfred Bion and the English psychotherapist Frances Tustin, whose contribution is, still today, the most important psychoanalytic reference in the field of research and  clinic of autism.

The merit of psychoanalytic thought is that it has produced a psychopathological model of autism even before the illuminating scientific contributions that attested the presence of neurobiological alterations as its etiopathogenesis. In light of these discoveries, the original hypothesis, that this mental functioning was the result of an evolutionary arrest, has been completely revised and currently, in the psychoanalytic literature, it is believed that it is the expression of a distortion of psychic development.It should be emphasized that, even if this psychopathological model tells us nothing about the biological alterations underlying it, it still has the merit of having understood, more than any other approach, the neuromental functioning of autistic subjects, with its peculiarities and diversity and above all, of having founded an extremely valid model of therapeutic treatment, still today.Although WHO views cognitive-behavioral therapy and the ABA approach as an elite treatment for autism, it is interesting to analyze psychodynamic contributions in light of recent scientific discoveries to investigate which elements of this model could be most useful for the treatment of autism spectrum disorders.

Keywords: autism, piscoanalysis, symbol

pdf (Italiano)

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