Sobre a escolha do sujeito autista: voz e autismo About the choice of the autistic subject: voice and autism

Abstract

After presenting the psychoanalytic definition of the voice and the role it plays in the subject as a drive object, this paper attempts to define autism. In metapsychological terms, autism presents clinically as an active refusal of the other’s voice and of its offer to imprint, through words, in the area of language and speech. This refusal is a basic choice to not be alienated by the other’s voice. The autistic subject, for whom the other’s presence is excessive, remains, as is demonstrated clinically, a prisoner of sound and thus finds difficulty in accessing speech. Based on this theory, this paper suggests that the treatment of autistic subjects should take into account and emphasize the measures of appeal and address that characterize the drive dynamics involved. Addressed by the clinician, the subject who has difficulty coming into being can choose to answer. The sessions can be viewed as spaces for the patient to experiment gradually with, through the clinician’s desire, another relation to sound and voice. The clinician’s desire is expressed by improvisations addressed peripherally to the patient. Thus, the relation is no longer characterized by being closed off to the other’s voice and/or by the fascination with certain sonorities, but allows for “muting” the voice so as to “deepen the sound” and give rise to the choice of speech.