ABSTRACT
There are many art therapists working in this area, but as yet their experience does not seem to be readily available. What is available in print about art and autism seems usually to be written by members of other professions, and tends to refer to those whose ability to use art materials is already established-
sometimes exceptionally so, as in the case of Nadia (Selfe 1977), and Stephen Wiltshire (Sacks 1995:186). Historically, the National Autistic Society has been sceptical about psychodynamic modes of treatment, which may in part have been a reaction to the one-time theory that parents were somehow to blame for the condition. My experience may reflect that of other art therapists: I found that carers and families valued input from the psychology profession involving assessment and provision of guidelines for the constructive management of clients, which to some extent was assumed to conflict with the art therapist’s contribution. Paradoxically, this appeared partly to be due to the realisation that a feature of autism is a difficulty in using symbols, and with developing the imagination.
