The impossible reparation

Abstract

This article discusses the phantasy of returning to the past and symbiotically merging with the mother, which, in an autistic patient, constituted an attempt of impossible reparation. This mode of reparation resulted in a cycle in which any attempt to repair the inner experience by contact with an external object was destined to be disappointing because of the desire for an infantile connection without separateness. The author reviews the literature on reparation and emphasises recent developments resulting from work with Autism Spectrum Disorder children who are far from the depressive position and who have difficulty bearing separateness. The author recognises an essential positive aspect of reparation independent of the ability to perceive the object as separate and suggests that when working with very primitive emotional states, it seems suitable to use a wider definition for what can be considered essentially a primitive reparative act or a precursor for reparation. Next, the author discusses the significance of a phantasy of impossible reparation in an autistic girl with emphasis on the importance of considering the reparative aspects of this defensive phantasy to enable development. Finally, the author relates to the despair that occurs in both analyst and patient when the phantasy is not transformed.

Keywords:

• autism
• reparation
• unconscious phantasy
• depression

Notes

1. ‘Autistic shapes’: Tustin (1990) used this term to describe whorls of auto-generated sensations that deaden awareness to oneself and to a shared reality. Theories on sensory self-holding behaviours usually stress the tactile aspect of this process and the closing and impoverishment of the internal space and phantasy, and this focus has implications for the way the patient is understood. However, there might also be a continuum between states of ‘no internal space no self and no object’ and states of ‘internal space self and object’, and it is important to notice this continuum in analysis. I would like to suggest that even what seem like senseless moments of autistic dismantling, like epilepsy (Meltzer, 1975b), and moments of forming autistic shapes may sometimes involve a primitive phantasy of an adhesive joining to an object.