ABSTRACT
This chapter begins with the autism and explains some links with borderline psychosis and personality disorder. The trauma of having one's child receive a diagnosis of autism, and the degree of confusion and rejection experienced by those who live with a child, have been well documented by Susan Reid and Trudy Klauber in Autism and Personality. Psychoanalytic clinicians were among the first to comment on the problem of excitement and excitability in children with autism. The chapter discusses four factors: deficit or delay, disorder, deviance, and personality. All four features need attention in the treatment of the child or adolescent with autism, psychosis, or personality disorder. Both the autistic and non-autistic, or the psychotic and non-psychotic parts of the personality need addressing. At other moments, of course, when the child is more present and aware and his behaviour has more intentionality and motive, more ordinary psychotherapeutic work may take place.
