What can do a camera do in psychoanalytic sessions with children with autistic traits?

Abstract:

The central question that guides this work is about whether a film recording camera, which is an object initially used for methodological purposes, could have a therapeutic function. The aim is to present and discuss the repercussions and possibilities related to the presence of a camera in cases of autistic shutdown in the Early Intervention Program, from a psychoanalytic perspective. This is clinical-qualitative research, with content analysis, based on clinical vignettes of three cases of children, between 2 and 3 years old. Three approaches are discussed regarding the uses and types of objects belonging to a baby’s universe, to ask if they could assist in the autism clinic: the transitional object, the tutor object, and the mediation object. It is considered that the camera promoted and sustained important intersubjective meetings and the awakening of children’s attention, previously less interested in what was offered to them, initiating a space for co-construction and interludicity.

Keywords:  autism; psychoanalysis; mediation object; tutor object; autistic object