ABSTRACT
In this chapter, the author discusses the states that are so early that the sense of self is undeveloped. To do this, she draws from the background of her work as a child psychotherapist, a great deal of which has been with autistic children. In working with these children we can watch the early unfolding of the sense of Self and can begin to realize the miracle of this achievement. The author shows that this early arrest of basic personality development is due to paralysing terrors that, to those of us whose sense of Self is well established, are likely to seem bizarre. The development of autistic children seems to have been halted at early level. As treatment diminishes their massive withdrawal, they show us the nameless terrors that arise from the sense of fluidity that has permeated their being.
