ABSTRACT
Leo Kanner's paper was originally published in the Journal of Child Psychotherapy and a paper by Melanie Klein entitled 'The importance of symbol formation in the development of the ego' is discussed. It is a mark of Melanie Klein's originality and perspicacity that in her paper she anticipated many of Kanner's findings. Thus, unlike the schizophrenic child, the autistic child has little curiosity about the inside of the mother's body, which Melanie Klein sees as the starting point for all learning. Klein, fifty years ago, was ahead of her time in realizing that not only adults but also children could be psychotic, and in realizing the need for a more precise differential diagnosis, from a psychoanalytic point of view, between the various types of childhood psychosis. The schizophrenic child is in a confused entanglement with his mother. Mahler refers to this as 'pathological symbiosis'. Thus the processes of projective identification as described by Klein are very active and obvious.
