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This is the first book on the psychoanalytic treatment of children, young people and adults with Asperger's syndrome. It includes multidisciplinary contributions on psychiatric perspectives and psychological theories of the condition. There is an overview of relevant psychoanalytic theory, and chapters on Asperger's original paper, on firstperson accounts, on assessment and on care in the community. Clinical case histories of children, young people and the first published account of work with adults provide the possibility of using psychoanalytic work as a means of diagnostically differentiating between sub-groups, as well as providing a detailed insight into the emotional experience of people with Asperger's syndrome.

This book is by a professional for other professionals, but thoughtful people who are interested in the fundamental aspects of human nature will also find much to interest them. The papers which have been published in various journals or delivered to professional audiences since the appearance of Frances Tustin's previous book Autistic Barriers in Neurotic Patients are integrated with unpublished material written especially for this book, so that they can enrich and illuminate each other. A paper from the early days of her work with autistic children is the focus of this present work, since her awareness of encapsulation as being the major protective reaction associated with the autistic states of both psychotic and neurotic patients, has stemmed from that early paper.

“The hardest thing is dealing with the rest of the world. And we kind of accommodate our lives around that. But the rest of the world doesn't.” These poignant words were spoken by Charlotte, a mother and primary caregiver of a five-year-old autistic boy, and her words reference the structural arrangements of our world that shape autism carework today. This book features the voices of fifty primary caregivers of autistic and neurodivergent children who illuminate the process through which laywomen become expert caregivers to provide the best care for their children. Expert caregiving captures an intensification of traditional family carework – meeting dependents'financial, emotional, and physical needs – that transcends the walls of one's private home and family and challenges the strict boundaries between many worlds: lay and professional, family and work, private and public, medical and social, and individual and society. The process of becoming an expert caregiver spotlights several interesting paradoxes in sociological literature, particularly regarding gender, family, and medicalization, and often forgotten structural flaws in “the rest of the world.” Throughout the chapters in this book, the expert caregiver is one person who faces unbelievably daunting tasks of filling or reforming persistent institutional gaps, primarily in education and health care, and subverting ableist cultural norms. Without institutional support, answers to their questions, or pragmatic avenues to access resources, lay caregivers become the experts. Their trials and tribulations, especially when navigating the boundaries of professional/lay and private/public worlds, illuminate a type of carework that is increasingly relevant to a growing number of young families caring for neurodivergent, disabled, medically fragile, and/or chronically ill children. These stories offer a vivid picture of the often invisible complex challenges and structural forces that drive individuals to become expert caregivers in the first place.

Autism presents in a multitude of different and highly nuanced ways - particularly as it intersects with variance in class, gender, race and age. Misunderstanding and misinformation around variant and differing presentations means that misdiagnosed individuals and those who do not receive a diagnosis at all are often failed by medical, education, social care and criminal justice systems. They are detained in inappropriate settings; don't receive beneficial therapeutic input; have their families accused of fabricated or induced illness (FII); are kept in prison or youth offending institutions longer than their original tariffs, and shockingly their life expectancy is often curtailed as a result. This comprehensive resource will help multidisciplinary professions to understand, contextualise, and better identify diverse autistic presentations. It includes an overview of the autism diagnostic process, an exploration of controversial and commonly confused diagnoses such as PDA, ODD, CD, ASPD, and BPD; discussions of best practice for investigating FII; and analysis of the specific challenges of autism diagnosis in relation to women and girls, BAME communities, schools, and the criminal justice system.

This book investigates the therapeutic potential and efficacy of audiovisual languages, deepening the integration of film studies into neuropsychiatry and strategic psychotherapy.Within a theoretical framework including documentary studies, self-representational and amateur theories, and strategic psychotherapy, the book describes the key notions and methodologies for using audiovisual language in clinical therapy practice and autism spectrum disorder (ASD) interventions. The book, a review and update of the Italian Cinema terapeutico: Linguaggi audiovisivi e percorsi clinici, showcases the healing potential of creative participatory processes and self-representations that occur thanks to the relocation and amateurization of the contemporary cinematic experience. The authors propose an experimental therapeutic protocol, Video-Pharmakon, which aims to serve as a new integrated method for taking care of children and adolescents with ASD and their families. The protocol is illustrated in its methodologies and phases and supported through case studies.Scholars and practitioners of art therapy and narrative-based medical approaches, professionals working with clients with ASD, and any other student or professional interested in ASD, psychotherapy, and film studies will find this a valuable resource for current practice and future research interventions.

Temple Grandin offers the world yet another great work, an inspiring and informative book that offers both hope and encouragement. In these pages, Temple presents the personal success stories of fourteen unique individuals that illustrate the extraordinary potential of those on the autism spectrum. One of Temple's primary missions is to help people with autism, Asperger's Syndrome, and ADHD tap into their hidden abilities. Temple chose these contributors from a wide variety of different skill sets to show how it can be done. Each individual tells their own story in their own words about their lives, relationships, and eventual careers. The contributors also share how they dealt with issues they confronted while growing up, such as bullying, making eye contact, and honing social skills. Different...Not Less shows how, with work, each of the contributors: Found invaluable mentors Learned skills necessary for employment when young Became successfully employed Developed self-confidence Faced the challenges of forming and maintaining relationships (and sometimes) Raised families

Drawing on their own clinical and lived experiences of the autism spectrum, the authors of this guide provide readers who are on the autism spectrum and have a mental illness with strategies to overcome difficulties and achieve greater wellbeing. Amongst others, the book covers topics such as medication, stigma, therapy pets and psychotherapy.

Frances Tustin Today explores some of the ways and means by which Tustin's work has enabled psychoanalytic clinicians to enter into the elemental domain of sensation: what Bion called the ‘proto-mental'area of the psyche-soma. Through detailed clinical contributions of several of her exponents worldwide, this book demonstrates how her ideas -- rooted in decades of work with children on the autistic spectrum -- have influenced and are being expanded, extended and applied to the treatment of ordinary patients from early childhood through adulthood. The contributors to this volume represent a selection of the contemporary thinking that organically grew out of Tustin's discoveries, and show that Tustin's model has added new dimensions to the fields of infant observation, family therapy and neuro-psychology. Each chapter is augmented by demonstrable clinical experience. Frances Tustin Today is a valuable resource for psychoanalysts, psychotherapists, educators and parents who are interested in learning more about this uniquely independent clinical observer's findings and their impact upon the treatment of autistic states in children, adolescents and adults by contemporary workers in the field of mental health. Judith L. Mitrani, and Theodore Mitrani, are Fellows of The International Psycho-Analytical Association, Training and Supervising Psychoanalysts at The Psychoanalytic Center of California in Los Angeles. They are founding members of the Board of Trustees of The Frances Tustin Memorial Trust, and authors, editors, translators and teachers in the private practice of psychoanalysis and psychoanalytic therapy with Adults and Children in Los Angeles, California.

This book is a collection of articles written between 1992 and 2005 which attempts to bring two universes together - Bion's referential and autistic phenomena. The field of clinical work which the author uses is that of'learning from the emotional experience'(Bion, 1962) and the theory of Transformations (Bion, 1965), a method of observing mental phenomena within this field, which also encompasses the areas of neurosis and psychosis. The author makes use of Tustin's concept (1965) which proposes that the personality has, apart from the neurotic and psychotic parts, an autistic part in which prevails sensations in place of emotions. The author suggests adding an autistic area to the theory of Transformations, proposing a new type of transformation beyond those suggested by Bion: the autistic transformations. The merit of this proposal is to expand Bion's referential to the autistic area, an area dominated by sensations without representation in the mind.

This book discusses psychoanalytic understanding of childhood autism and of autistic aspects of adult patients. It describes a wide range of adult patients who are highly articulate, successful people having nonetheless an encapsulated autistic area which blocks communication with others.

A father's inspiring portrait of his daughter informs this classic reassessment of the'epidemic'of autism. When Isabel Grinker was diagnosed with autism in 1994, it occurred in only about 3 of every 10,000 children. Within ten years, rates had skyrocketed. Some scientists reported rates as high as 1 in 150. The media had declared autism an epidemic.Unstrange Minds documents the global quest of Isabel's father, renowned anthropologist Roy Richard Grinker, to discover the surprising truth about why autism is so much more common today. In fact, there is no autism epidemic. Rather, we are experiencing an increase in autism diagnoses, and Grinker shows that the identification and treatment of autism depends on culture just as much as it does on science.Filled with moving stories and informed by the latest science, Unstrange Minds is a powerful testament to a father's search for the truth.

The first book to address the need for information about psychiatric problems in people with autism spectrum disorders (ASDs), Mental Health Aspects of Autism and Asperger Syndrome systematically explains the emotional and psychological difficulties that are often encountered with ASDs.