ABSTRACT
In Explorations in Autism Donald Meltzer distinguishes autism proper from post-autistic residues of autism. The world of autism proper is one-dimensional in that it is "substantially mindless, consisting of a series of events not available for memory or thought". In autism, the failure originates in the child's incapacity to form the concept of an internal space inside the object: rather than a "defect in the container-function of the object", it is a defect "in the conception-of-the-object-as-container, namely the two-dimensional conception". The typical compulsive repetitiveness of autism contains certain primitive aspects that distinguish it from the compulsive behaviour of obsessional neurosis. The mental qualities of autism are considered by Meltzer to be intrinsic to the child. Post-autistic development, described as immaturity or character pathology in children with only one or some of the autistic qualities defined by Meltzer, depends on the interaction of the child's particular mental qualities with the significant figures of the environment.
