The autistic object: its relationship with narcissism in the transference and countertransference of neurotic and borderline patients 1

Abstract

In this paper we examine the relationship of the autistic object concept to narcissism, and we attempt to delimit its chronological location. Then we refer to transferential and countertransferential relationships that appear when the autistic object arises within the analysis of nonpsychotic patients. We also discuss some clinical phenomena described in other ways by different authors, with characteristics very similar to those that we have termed autistic objects. We report the case of a patient whose analysis is arrested upon the appearance of the clinical phenomenon under study. The emergence of the austistic object demanded unusual manoeuvres for its removal and subsequent resumption of the process. Analyst and patient had shared--in transferential and countertransferential ways--the autistic object put forward by the patient. The verbal discourse precluded communication instead of making it possible. We used the model of the mental kaleidoscope to explain some of the clinical phenomena described.