Editorial

This issue of the journal brings together a number of interesting and informative contributions which explore new ground in areas that continue to be preoccupying for child psychotherapists.

The first three articles form a collection devoted to work with autistic children and adolescents. Although the emphasis of each article is different, they are all fine examples of clinicians working to connect with their patients to diminish mindless seclusion and adhesive ways of relating.

Amir’s article is of considerable theoretical interest, as she uses the musical concept of the organ point to consider how autistic syntax transforms normal multi-dimensional linguistic potential into something one-dimensional, repetitive and stripped of emotional range. Amir suggests that this autistic syntax blocks out the possibility of the presence and complexity of human characteristics of the self and the other. The other becomes the means by which the hole (created by the absence of the other as a psychological object) is plugged by their concrete presence. She argues that this results in the impossibility of a real dialogue as the language of the other is affected and inhibited by this autistic syntactic functioning. Repetitiveness removes the possibility that anything new can be allowed. This is an interesting look at the comparison of language and music in all their layers and how language can be rendered flat and devoid of creativity within relationships through autistic syntax.

The next two articles are primarily accounts of psychotherapy with autistic patients: Spoladore’s intensive work with a young child and Holloway’s contrasting experiences of working with two adolescents. Spoladore’s article includes a review of the literature on trauma, which seemed to be a precipitating aspect of the aetiology of her young patient’s autistic symptoms. Helping young Serge towards a more adaptive way of managing separation and loss is honestly and sensitively informed by the therapist’s parall