A PSYCHODYNAMIC MODEL FOR UNDERSTANDING PERVASIVE DEVELOPMENTAL DISORDERS

The article underlines the usefulness of a psychodynamic model based o n developmental psychoanalytic concepts for the management of children with pervasive developmental disorders, including the Autistic Disord er and related clinical entities. It is argued that in spite of the bi ological and constitutional etiology of these disorders, the variety a nd fluctuations of clinical phenomenology may be conceptualized as dis turbances of functions in a developmental continuum, with defects at d ifferent levels of personality organization according to the developme ntal profile of Anna Freud and Mahler's theory of separation-individua tion. Furthermore, during the therapeutic process of children with per vasive developmental disorders, after the establishment of a relations hip with the therapist, observation of transitional - like objects use d by these nonverbal children may provide valuable information as to t he level of self- object differentiation, the capacity to modulate and control aggression and the emerging capacity for symbolization, thus facilitating the formulation of therapeutic interventions.