Andrea Autistic defenses in the face of psychotic panic

Abstract

In this paper we approach the subject of clinical practice in child analysis.
We attempt to show our work through the vicissitudes in the encounter with a small girl. Andrea‟s “madness” allowed us to introduce ourselves in the incommunicable world of countertransference phenomena.
Her withdrawal into autism used as a defense, a protecting wall in the face of paranoid panic, and her later exit made us raise some psychopathological issues which will never be definitely clarified.
Some authors have aided us in this task, Bion, Meltzer, Luis E. Prego and his references to Winicott, among others.
In the paper we have but barely managed lo touch some family aspects we think are of central import, and hope to develop them in a later presentation.
Finally, and as always, the incomprehensible discovery of the unconscious and “madness” has been left without an ending.