ABSTRACT
This part introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters. The part argues that child psychoanalysis has the responsibility to find a language that truly describes what can be observed within a therapeutic relationship with an autistic child, respecting his complexity. There is a big difference between saying that the triad of autism is due to the inability to simulate the mental states of the other person, and claiming that it is the expression of the subject’s inability to have dream thoughts about his life experience. Psychotherapeutic and psychoanalytical work with children and adolescents who suffer from pervasive developmental disorders have attracted many critical and contrasting views. The psychotherapy is psychoanalytically, psychopathologically and developmentally informed. The question of the psychoanalytic treatment of children with autism has been surrounded by controversy. The interest in psychopathology has definitively given its place to the concern for development and the respect for “diversity”.
