The Integration of Masculinity and Femininity in Autistic Spectrum Children (ASD) and the ‘Co-presence of Sexuality and Thought’.

This paper engages in debates about the nature of autistic spectrum disorder with a theoretical model the ‘extreme male brain’ theory of autism, put forward by Simon Baron-Cohen. In doing so it aims to clarify what is distinctive about the child psychotherapy approach to ASD. After outlining the Baron-Cohen approach and appreciating the evidence involved, the paper raises three issues, and recasts his interpretation of the evidence in terms of ‘developmental bisexuality, drawing on the work of Frances Tustin and the artist Louise Bourgeois. Urwin describes psychotherapeutic work with a parent couple in a family with a young autistic child, work aiming to facilitate the development of a communication-enhancing environment. She also explores the developmental balance between masculine and feminine aspects achieved over time in non-intensive and intensive psychotherapy of a boy and a girl. In conceptualising developmental aspects of psychic bisexuality, attention is drawn to the child’s capacity to identify with characteristics of both parents. It is argued that his capacity and the flexibility to move from one identification to another is integral to the young child’s capacity to tolerate a position outside the parental couple, and eventually to be supported by this creative link. In conclusion, it is suggested that the consistency in the psychotherapeutic method, combined with the enhanced empathic understanding that comes with the therapeutic relationship, can enable some ASD children to contain and bear depressive pain. This is fundamental in the realignment of internal relations and the growth of thought and creativity.