Autism in Childhood and Autistic Features in Adults: A Psychoanalytic Perspective (The Psychoanalytic Ideas Series) - Softcover

''This book is part of the Psychoanalytic Ideas series which brings together the best of public lectures and other writings given by members of the British Psychoanalytical Society.'- Mary Mountstephen, SEN Magazine

This is the first collection of papers published in this country which spans work with autistic children and autistic features in adults. The links between the two groups make for fascinating reading and go some way to explain the widespread interest in the enigma of autism. Many of the adult patients described are less ill than autistic children whose development has ground to a halt at an early age, but at the core of their difficulties can be found autistic features remarkably similar to those of the more floridly disturbed children. This leads several writers to conclude that autistic features are to be found in many adults, some would say in all of us. The insights contained in these papers open up access to deep levels of the human psyche and have far-reaching clinical implications. 'This collection draws together papers which are central to today's psychoanalytic understanding of childhood autism and of autistic aspects of adult patients. Some of these papers are classics in the field while others describe more recent advances in understanding and technique.