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INTEREST IN TREATMENT FOR CHILDREN DIAGNOSED WITH ASPERGER'S syndrome has increased as more children with this condition have been referred for psychotherapy and other interventions (Alvarez & Reid, 1999; Jacobsen, 2004). Despite the increasing awareness of these children's needs, Klin and Volkmar (2000) note that there is a void in services for them, and they are caught between systems that are organized either for children with autism on the one hand or with learning disabilities on the other.
Several authors have stated that psychoanalytic therapy is ineffective and/or deleterious for children diagnosed with Asperger's syndrome (e.g., Fitzgerald & Bellgrove, 2006; Ghaziuddin, 2005; Ruderman, 2002). Such assertions appear to have been based upon a classical model of treatment that focuses primarily upon recovery of repressed, conflictual material, an approach that does not appear to fit well with the needs of this population (Jacobsen, 2004). Aversion toward psychoanalytic treatment for these children also seems to be based in part upon the inaccurate conflation of features of normative infant development, psychosis,