Autism>The Autistic State of Mind

The Autistic State of Mind

Some of the processes that underlie the external features of autism can be explained with insights from modern Attachment Theory and Psychoanalytic Constructionism (e.g. Bion and autism-specialists Tustin, Meltzer, Alvarez, Spensley, Scabbiolo etc.)

• Unconceptualised Protective Practices
  ‘tactile hallucinations’ = protect from terror of ‘not-being’, but obstruct mental development
  • Autistic (Sensation) Objects
    • usually hard
    • make the child feel strong and impenetrable, as if part of his own body
      e.g. clutching bunch of keys, toy-car, train, biting hard edges of photos, books, toy
  • Autistic (Sensation) Shapes
    • tactile activities to produce whorls of comforting sensations (like tranquilisers)
    • to produce sense of ongoingness to avoid a painful awareness of separateness
      e.g. stroking, usually on smooth surfaces/skin, - rocking, flapping, spinning, - water
• Bodily Terrors
  no concept of growth, healing or learning, but of parts coming off or being added on
  • Fears of Damage to their Body
    • fears bodily damage: holes to his 'shell', parts of his body coming off, leaking out
      e.g. fear of: ketchup/red, washing hands/hair, own/others' 'biting' teeth, taking off shoes
  • Their Mouth feels Broken
    • something experienced as part of their mouth is felt as having been wrenched away
      e.g. child has 'a thing about h. mouth/ teeth/ tongue'; spitting; constant (vibrating) noises; pre-occupation with tongue/ teeth/ saliva/ mouth cavity, not talking; mutism
• Dismantling
  • letting mind fall apart + rendering senses/ feelings into unconnected bits of sensation
  • anti-symbolic/ anti-meaning: can be passive process or more active deliberate
    e.g. watching moving patterns of clouds/ tree, no response to noises/ pain, 'funny looking'
• Touch used for Turning away from People
  • touch has magical significance, as if it can make them exist or be ‘gone’, but
  • their own manipulative touching activities block development of abstract processes
    e.g. lining things up, rhythmic movements, clinging, masturbating, sucking fingers/ tongue
• Autistic Obstructions to Symbol Formation
  symbol formation requires some sense of bodily separateness and the ability to use one’s mind to deal with the experience of loss, frustration and need
  e.g. not being able to play or draw symbolically, no understanding of story-line
  • Dismantled Perception
    • hearing/ seeing (long-distance modes of perception) don’t have normal importance
    • attention is riveted on tactile sensations, instead of making sense of sights/sounds
      e.g. 'tuning out', listening to distant noises, 'far-away-eyes', 'funny looking'
  • Dismantling of Concept Formation
    • non-shared auto-generated sensations are more important than objective function
      e.g. any hard object will do, flapping anything (ribbon, books, doll by its hair...) echolalia