ABSTRACT
This chapter demonstrates that psychogenic autistic children are in the grip of elemental terrors which are part of the inborn lot of all of us, though not to the same degree. In particular, it suggests that the automatic reaction to the threat of falling is one which has immobilized them, and one with which we can empathize. The study of psychogenic autism is the study of the narrowing of perception through terror, but it is also the study of the undifferentiated fusing of sensation, which gives the state its unbearable poignancy. The original experience had been such as we describe when we say we have a sinking feeling in the pit of the stomach. As we saw from John's clinical material, the tantrum with which he unburdened himself was felt to leave him with a part missing: this was the wonderful, vital 'button'.
