Initial interventions in psychotherapeutic treatment of autistic children

Abstract

General considerations (conceptual approach, anamnesis, and group observations), and individual aspects of initiating treatment are discussed in light of psychoanalytically oriented therapeutic experience. Brief clinical examples from case histories of nine children, diagnosed in accordance with Kanner's (early infantile autism) and Mahler's (primary and secondary autism) descriptions, and exposed to intensive outpatient treatment, both in a day-care center and in private practice, are presented to illustrate the approach. Suitable interventions are made by following the child's cues within a developmental frame of reference. Such interventions yield significant common experiences which are remembered rather than shut out, and can be utilized to establish widening dialogues, an interaction and, eventually, a relationship between the child and therapist.