ABSTRACT
This chapter outlines some hypotheses combining clinical observation with some theoretical tools. It discusses W. R. Bion’s illustration, which deals with language: the infant evacuates into the breast his fear of dying through projective identification. The chapter shows how autistic children use the emission of sounds as an inanimate object, which produces sensations. Mimetic language shows the failures of projective and introjective identification processes and the privileged use of adhesive identification. The arrest of the projective and introjective identifications obstructs the development of the symbiotic container-contained relationship. The chapter proposes the conjecture that the imitation of voices acts as a second skin, which contributes to encapsulation and to mechanical functioning. It also proposes the hypothesis that, in autistic functioning, tropisms lodge at proto-mental, neurophysiologic, hormonal, levels, and are expressed as somatic symptoms. It explores some hypotheses that aim to be, openings and an invitation to analyst colleagues that can follow the investigation, combining it with their own clinical experience.
