Self, other and dialogical space in autistic disorders

Abstract

The authors propose to re-evaluate Tustin's thesis using both the extensive clinical material of a child with an autistic disorder [PDD], and current research on infant development. Beebe's concept of 'interaction structure' that could be inferred from the fifth month of life using face-to-face research data is used for postulating a dialogic space that would be generated inside such structure, allowing for definition of self and other in a relationship. If such space is collapsed, the other would be a threat of annihilation for the self, thus it should be avoided or merged with, which could explain the systematic avoidance of the not-me in autistic states. The authors stress that these ideas are just one alternate model, among several, that seems to be able to explain the patient's deviant development.

The trauma of parting: Endings of music therapy with children with autism spectrum disorders

“…(Reid, 1999, p. 93) This view has been supported by psychoanalytic circles (Alvarez, 1999(Alvarez, , 2010Fonseca & Bussab, 2006). Case studies dealing with early trauma (under the age of two) re-emerging in the face of current separation from the therapist have been eloquently described by Tustin (1990) and Alvarez (1992Alvarez ( , 2010 during child psychotherapy with children with autism.…”

The autistic dialogic style: a case of Asperger's syndrome

“…It might be defined as a virtual mental space inside which self and other mutually define themselves, being acquired early in development, and dependent, in our culture, on face-to-face interactions. I have elsewhere (Fonseca, 2005;Fonseca and Bussab, 2006) raised the hypothesis that autistic children have severe impairment in this particular development. Beebe et al (1997) posit that around four months of life, it is possible to infer, from face-to-face research with mother-infant dyads, the existence of an interaction structure in which pre-symbolic representation of self, object, and the relationship between them are evident.…”

“…Both dialogic space and the interaction structure contained by it are inscribed in the implicit memory as an implicit relational knowledge (Stern et al, 1998) and allow a web of potential meanings to expand from them. Such a web would have an important role in internalisation processes, offering scaffolding for the establishing of internal objects (Fonseca and Bussab, 2006).…”

“…Some autistic children may not be aware of the other's presence and as an alternative way of dealing with otherness, struggle to make it vanish; they try to transform otherness into 'selfness' (Fonseca and Bussab, 2006). In less severe cases, as in Asperger's children, this tendency is more subtle, but it is possible to identify it through rigorous scrutiny.…”

“…..'' Indeed, the emotional life inherent in being human is a burden for Arthur. Since he lacks an internal structure to transform raw emotions into thoughts, the apparatus for thinking, according to Bion (1962), or the dialogic structure (Fonseca and Bussab, 2006), feelings may be experienced by him as an internal catastrophe. We are here in the realm of deficits (Alvarez, 1992).…”