O que opera na clínica psicanalítica com crianças autistas? Fragmentos de uma experiência

Abstract

This master´s thesis deals with the issue of effectiveness of Psychoanalytical treatment applied to autistic children using data from my own clinical experience as a member of the Public Health Service and having worked in several of its facilities. Emphasis is given to the question of ethics considering the importance of experience transmission in Psychoanalysis. The analyst s desire and the analyst s presence are taken as key concepts and clinical players responsible for treatment effectiveness and efficacy. This paper brings excerpts from practice to illustrate both difficulties and achievements in such a challenging clinical field. Under examination are the expansion of autism´s diagnosis brought about by Psychiatry with the notion of Spectrum and the consequential distortions in diagnosing methods which, therefore, are leading to a high number of misdiagnoses. The study gives special attention to the difference between psychoanalytical and psychiatric diagnoses, then discusses the effects of the latest for the psychoanalytic clinics. For this purpose, the psychoanalytical concepts of subject constitution in liaison with the Other are also discussed using the concepts of alienation and separation to approach the problem of subject constitution in autism. Focus is put on the possibilities of progress these children find in the analytical treatment