ABSTRACT
In this chapter, the author discusses the impact that living with an autistic or psychotic child has on the parents and the siblings and the vicissitudes that arise in their family relations. A therapist often hears parents say that they want to have another child who would take care of their disabled one when “they are gone”. Sometimes, it is the case that the parents’ observations aid the therapist in helping them to understand their children. The author provides some examples and vignettes from her clinical work and presents how the healthy sibling’s presence is portrayed–or not–in the parents’ sessions. The parents used to talk mostly about the autistic child’s everyday problems in a distant, superficial way. Healthy siblings grow up in a family environment with many pathogenic functions, but with parents who also have healthy sides. The author concludes with a clinical vignette that illustrates functions as well as the psychic movements in the family.
