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Otherness in Autism: from the Fellow Human-Being to the Other Synthesis

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Otherness in Autism: from the Fellow Human-Being to the Other Synthesis PSICOLOGIA: TEORIA E PESQUISA DOI: https://dx.doi.org/10.1590/0102.3772e3648 2020, V.36, e3648 CLINICAL PSYCHOLOGY AND CULTURE Otherness in Autism: From the Fellow Human-Being to the Other Synthesis Andréa Di Pietro* & Angélica Bastos Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brazil ABSTRACT – The present article investigates an essential question raised by the experience of the psychoanalytic clinic of autism: otherness. The goal of this research is to establish the specificity and the variety of forms of otherness in autism. From the Freudian premise of the complex of the ‘fellow human being’ (Nebenmensch) to the distinction between this and the Other as a place of language, this research examines the forms of otherness that can arise in autism, such as identified by J.-C. Maleval. They are as follow: the autistic object, the double, and the synthetic Other. For this purpose, this paper finds support on life events narrated by autistics as well as clinical fragments from the specialized literature. KEYWORDS: psychoanalysis, autism, otherness, synthetic Other A Alteridade no Autismo: do Próximo ao Outro de Síntese RESUMO – O presente artigo investiga uma problemática suscitada pela experiência clínica e essencial à psicanálise com autistas: a alteridade. O objetivo da pesquisa consistiu em estabelecer a especificidade e a variedade das formas de alteridade nesses casos. Partindo da premissa freudiana do complexo do próximo (Nebenmensch) e passando pela distinção entre o próximo e o Outro enquanto lugar da linguagem, a pesquisa percorre as formas de alteridade suscetíveis de se delinearem no autismo, tais como identificadas por J.-C. Maleval: o objeto autístico, o duplo e o Outro de síntese. Para tal, recorre a relatos de vida narrados pelos autistas e a fragmentos clínicos da literatura especializada. PALAVRAS-CHAVE: psicanálise, autismo, alteridade, Outro de síntese Early on, psychoanalysts who work with children had to is, since Freud, the psychic reality par excellence? Despite respond to the status of the subject with whom they operated: the distinct approaches that the issue received, depending would there be in this clinic, a subject in the strictest on the psychoanalyst’s orientation, the complex matter that sense, as the experience of the unconscious implies? The we call otherness was highlighted. psychoanalysts answered affirmatively, claiming that the The clinic with the so-called autistics, the reading of their subject of the unconscious is not an infantile subject since testimonies, and the empirical literature on these subjects, the infantile, whether of sexuality or neurosis, involves a bring us the question about the status of otherness in these structure. That is, there is no pre-subject nor progressive cases. The refusal or the indifference towards people, the gradations in its manifestations. non-distinction between the subject and the other (frequently The increasingly precocious moment in which children illustrated in the scene where they take someone else’s hands were accepted into psychoanalytic treatment highlighted to perform some activity) as well as mutism and echolalic the dimension of betting on the subject, of anticipation, speech, all attest to a particular position in relation to people so, as it is in any analysis, the subject can arise. Parents’ and language. Such a position led many psychoanalysts to participation in the treatment was constantly questioned: formulate that, for autistics, the Other is not constituted how and why including them in the analysis if the Other of and does not exist. However, if we do not believe in the the subject depends on the writing of the unconscious, that construction of otherness in autism, how can we sustain * E-mail: [email protected] Submetido: 03/07/2018; Revisado: 13/09/2019; Aceito: 02/11/2019. 1 A Di Pietro & A Bastos betting on the subject, which is essential to the clinical work? reference, that is, that may have their meaning attached to Psychoanalytic treatment develops itself under transference; an image or a thing. that is why it is necessary to conceive the latter, although Based on the clinic and on the reading of these the current concepts of otherness in the clinical cases do not testimonies, we noticed that autistics protect themselves automatically apply to autism. Based on the observation that from an unbearable presence, which led us to formulate the psychoanalyst’s presence counts for the autistic, who the hypothesis that the otherness concerning them would responds to it and works with him, we will concentrate this be that of the “fellow human-being” – the Nebenmensch, work on the question about otherness, in order to collect in German. The one who carries out the extraneous help, elements for its treatment. according to Freud (1895/2006), but who is also a hostile When writing books or giving lectures, the so-called object. Lacan will resume and differentiate this figure from high-functioning autistics demonstrate that they have the Other as symbolic otherness: the Nebenmensch is an found a way to deal with the otherness. In these cases, they intolerable imminence of jouissance, while the Other is the have friends, some get married, their speech is clear and result of a sweep of jouissance operated by the incidence elaborated, and they seem to have assumed a body image. of the signifier, which may not occur. We will follow the These accounts allow us to observe specific ways in which hypothesis of Jean-Claude Maleval, a psychoanalyst who they could deal with others, make use of language, and proposes the synthetic Other for autistics, constituted not talk about themselves. For instance, they often resort to a by signifiers, but by signs; as a way of expanding existing double, such as Donna Williams, a high-functioning autistic constructions that were so far problematic in the theories who became known from the accounts she produced about on autism. her experience. In one of her books, Donna Williams In order to develop a reading that does not consider (1992/1999) explains the use she made of two characters, autism a deficit, a failure in relation to the structuring Willie and Carol, who served as protection – when she of neurosis or even psychosis, but rather an original and embodied them in specific situations – and allowed her to radically singular way of being in the world, this article aims open herself up to the world. In her book, she explains: to overcome the statement that the Other was not constituted “This was to signify that they were not communicating for these subjects. For that, it explores original ways in with Donna, only with the characters which I felt they which autistic subjects seem to be able to limit jouissance were worthy of” (Williams, 1992/1999, p.55). The use and construct otherness, tracing a path that goes from the that so-called autistics make of language also has its fellow human-being to the synthetic Other, passing through specificities. We observe a refusal to occupy a position of the autistic object and the double. Even though the functions enunciation, either by mutism or by verbiage. In addition, become more complex as we follow this path, it is essential they declare a preference for words that have a concrete not to take them as developmental stages to be overcome. NEBENMENSCH, THE FELLOW HUMAN-BEING In the text Project for a scientific psychology (1895/2006), hostile object and also the subject’s only auxiliary force. The Freud approaches the initial helpless state in which human crying and the screaming are incapable to end the state of beings are found when they are born. He proposes that, when urgency and, when they come from someone else, they evoke affected by an excess of excitation, the psychic apparatus in the subject their own experiences of pain and displeasure suffers an urgent need for discharge by the motor end and, (Freud, 1895/2006). thus, there are two possible routes. The first one, ofinternal By considering the crying as an appeal and by giving it change, corresponds to the expression of emotions, which a meaning, interpreting as hunger, sleep, or whatever, the is unable to stop receiving endogenous stimuli and produce one who occupies herself with the child offers her signifiers, relief. The second path entails a specific action, which summoning the child to the symbolic world. The experience corresponds to an alteration in the external world, producing of the satisfaction of the drive, “entirely suspended to as a consequence the temporary suspension of excitations in the other” (Lacan, 1959-60/2008, p.53, our translation), the psychic apparatus. For instance, in the case of hunger, becomes, then, associated with the incidence of the signifier. the specific action would correspond to seeking food in the Nonetheless, it is not enough to have a fellow human environment. being who talks to the child so the latter can enter into the However, the human baby is incapable of bringing symbolic world, conceiving the place of the Other. The out the specific action autonomously. It is facilitated by Nebenmensch is the precursor of the Other, but they do not extraneous help, that is, by an experienced person who will coincide. It is from the fellow human being, and because respond to the manifestations caused by the internal change. he is a speaking being, that the Other will be constituted as The figure of the Nebenmensch, the fellow human-being, a place of the signifier. However, from the Nebenmensh to appears as the first object of satisfaction, at once the first the Other there is a step to be taken. 2 Psic.: Teor. e Pesq., Brasília, 2020, v. 36, e3648 Otherness in Autism Lacan (1968-69/2008) questions whether the in the Other, that there is the unconscious structured like a Nebenmensh, the fellow who grants the extraneous help, language.
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