RESEARCH ON MUTISM OF AUTISTIC-CHILDREN

With reference to four clinical cases, this article attempts to reveal the disturbances in psychic functioning that result in mutism in the autistic child. In the light of Freud's main texts, notably On the conception of aphasias, The interpretation of dreams (chap. 8), On transformations of instincts, especially in anal erotism, and of the recent work of Donald Meltzer Explorations in the world of autism, we are attempting to extract, on the same model as the equation : faeces = gift = baby, the series :word = sound as living substance = faeces, whilst taking as the fundamental axis of the representation of the body, the digestive system and the risks involved in its investment by the autistic child, more specifically his mutism.