Engaging Primitive Anxieties of the Emerging Self

B. Levine, Howard

• Introduction -- Finding a center of gravity via proximity with the analyst -- Daydreaming and hypochondria: when daydreaming goes wrong and hypochondria becomes an autistic retreat -- “Black holes” and “fear of breakdown” in the analysis of a fetishistic-masochistic patient -- Autistic states in patients with a narcissistic structure -- Sensual experience, defensive second skin, and the eclipse of the body: some thoughts on Tustin and Ferrari -- “Emotional” storms in autistoid dynamics -- “The very same is lost”: in pursuit of mental coverage when emerging from autistic states -- Bion and the unintegrated states: falling, dissolving, and spilling -- Inhibition of curiosity due to concern about the object’s response: difficulties in tolerating a “third position” in relation to autism -- Language used as an autistic object -- The struggle to make the autistic child human -- Beckett’s Endgame: the collapse of mental life -- The autistic object, ethology, and neuroscience: a way to a Copernican revolution in the understanding of autistic spectrum disorders (ASD)?