ABSTRACT
Autistic mental functioning seems very close to that of the inhabitants of two-dimensional Flatland and one-dimensional Lineland, and autistic children even seem to know about the ultimate a-dimensional nothingness of Pointland. The cross structures space, becoming the basis of a coordinate system through which every single point in space can be reliably identified. Donald Meltzer writes about the crucial importance of the awareness and capacity to conceive of orifices for three-dimensional mental development. The core of autistic one- and two-dimensional mental functioning lies in the inability to conceive of separation and separateness. But the dream of a primal one-ness must be abandoned for two-ness to become possible. Two-ness implies an internal migration: it implies leaving behind, at the most primary level, what Meltzer has called the "romantic object". Meltzer introduced the notion of the dimensionality of mental life in Explorations in Autism.
