Book
Explorations in Autism: A Psycho-Analytical Study
The report of a research group of child psychotherapists, led by Meltzer with John Bremner, Shirley Hoxter, Doreen Weddell and Isca Wittenberg, on the intensive analysis of four autistic children, Timmy, John, Barry and Piffie. Meltzer's theoretical chapters describe autism proper as a mindless state brought about by dismantling, a passive suspension of attention that lets the self come apart along the lines of the senses. Post-autistic states are marked by two-dimensional, surface-to-surface relating and by adhesive identification, Esther Bick's term, which first appeared in print in Meltzer's writings of this year. The cases also reveal a disturbed geography of the life-space, which the publisher calls the geography of the internal mother and which later shaped Meltzer's theory of the claustrum. A chapter on dimensionality in mental functioning ranks one-, two-, three- and four-dimensional ways of relating to objects, space and time; the publisher presents it as the first theory of dimensionality in psychoanalysis.
Main ideas
- Autism proper is a mindless state produced by dismantling: attention lapses and the senses drift apart, each fixing on its own object.
- Dismantling is passive and free of sadism, unlike splitting.
- Post-autistic states show two-dimensional relating and adhesive identification, in which the self sticks to the object's surface and imitates it.
- The autistic child's life-space has a disturbed geography, the forerunner of Meltzer's later theory of the claustrum.
- Mental functioning can be ranked by dimensionality, from one-dimensional mindless movement through surfaces and inner spaces to the four-dimensional world of time and development.
What it shows
Esther Bick influenced Donald Meltzer
Bick's work on the psychic skin and on adhesive forms of identification underlies Meltzer's model of autistic states and of two-dimensional mental functioning.
- 1975
Donald Meltzer introduced Adhesive identification
The term was Esther Bick's, but it first appeared in print in Meltzer's 1975 paper and in Explorations in Autism, where he set it out as a mode of identification distinct from projective identification.
- 1975
Donald Meltzer introduced Dismantling
In Explorations in Autism Meltzer describes dismantling as a passive suspension of attention that lets the senses fall apart, each fixing on its own object. Unlike splitting, it involves no sadism.
- 1975
Donald Meltzer introduced Dimensionality of mental functioning
Meltzer's model ranks mental life by the dimensions of its objects and self: one-dimensional (autistic), two-dimensional (surfaces without inner space), three-dimensional (containers that projective identification can enter), and four-dimensional (time and development).
Adhesive identification diverges from Projective identification
Projective identification needs an object with an inside to project into. Adhesive identification belongs to a two-dimensional world where there is no inner space, so the self sticks to the object's surface and imitates it instead of entering it.
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Adhesive identification derives from Dimensionality of mental functioning
In Meltzer's scheme, adhesive identification is the typical way of relating in two-dimensional mental functioning, where objects are felt as surfaces only.
Dismantling diverges from Splitting
Like splitting, dismantling breaks experience apart, but it is passive rather than sadistic: attention simply lapses so the senses drift to separate objects, and they come together again easily once attention returns.