ABSTRACT
The various kinds of pathological autism have been differentiated and compared by means of the charts at the end of Chapter Six. In the present state of our knowledge of child psychosis, differential diagnosis in terms of the type of autism is a useful rough and ready way of classifying psychotic disorders of childhood on the basis of a critical feature of its psycho-dynamics. This method of classification by types of autism prevents our lumping together all the heterogeneous cases of child psychosis into a ‘hotch-potch’ (Kanner 1958, p. 142), and yet it also ‘leaves the door open revealing our perplexity and confusion’ (Creak 1967, p. 368). However, as more psychotic children are being seen and described, two syndromes seem to be emerging which can be distinguished with some exactitude. These are Early Infantile Autism and Childhood Schizophrenia. (This still leaves many psychotic children who fall outside these two categories.) In terms of the type of autism, Early Infantile Autism comes into the category of Encapsulated Secondary Autism (E.S.A.) and Childhood Schizophrenia into the category of Regressive Secondary Autism (R.S.A.).
