Performing Autistic Subjectivities. What autism ‘is’, what autism ‘isn’t’ and the subjects in between. A genealogical exploration of the autistic subject in the psychoanalytic literature.

Abstract

In this paper the authors try to provide a constructionist review with regards to the autistic subjectivity. Placing autism in a historical terrain, they use ideas stemming from social constructionism in order to examine the core subject of this paper that is the way autism has been treated in psychoanalytic discourse. The authors examine the evolution of psychoanalytic ideas making inferrences on the wider social context surrounding autism and psychoanalysis.