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What we will try to do above all is to avoid neologism and pseudo precision
In this paper, we present material with characteristic episodes of depressive dysfunction with despair and withdrawal, alongside with autistic like repetitive behavior, as exhibited in the transference, that alternate with states of recovery of full functionality, in a boy covering a period from age 16 months to 4 years, during combined parent/child psychoanalytic work. The variability of the clinical picture especially at the beginning of therapy leads us to speak of depressive and autistic-like manifestations, as the core pathognomonic elements of autism, namely the automated sensorimotor fragmentation, the autistic executive entity that regulates reality management in place of the Ego, and the radical absence of symbolised body representation, thought and emotion, are missing.
Instead, what predominates is a serious depressive disorder. We could say that the child had approached a borderline state of risk of seeing his psyche lose its basic structure, namely that of primary and secondary processes, representation processes, symbolised mnemic traces, emotion, and complex instinctual organisation.