Introduction

This collection draws together papers which are central to today’s psychoanalytic understanding of childhood autism and of autistic aspects of adult patients. Some of these papers are classics in the field while others describe more recent advances in understanding and technique. They show a broad range of psychoanalytic ideas and a variety of views. Many relevant and important authors could not be included in this attempt to cover an area which is paradoxically rich despite the fact that it focuses on such barren and unthinking states of mind. I shall mention some of these authors in this account, to give the wider picture and to offer readers the possibility of following up the ideas that interest them.