27th  June 2026 Lecture

On a knife-edge: Looking for the right distance in work with children on the autism spectrum - Maria Rhode

To be held online from 10.00am to 12.00noon on Saturday 27th June 2026, by Zoom. Attendance is free of charge for all FPC members and will count as 2 hours CPD. The lecture will not be recorded. To book a place please email admin@thefpc.org.uk 

This paper addresses the issue of finding the right distance to the patient in psychoanalytic work with children on the autistic spectrum. It is suggested that, like borderline patients, these children are caught between the fear of being pushed off the caregiver into space, on the one hand, and of being engulfed, on the other. This ‘claustrophobic-agoraphobic dilemma’ (Rey) is considered with regard to factors in the caregiver; the child’s phantasies concerning the caregiver’s internal figures; and consequences of autistic children’s heightened sensitivity to the state of mind of other people.  The paternal function as the mediator of distance between mother and child is discussed in relation to the ‘bisexuality of the container’ (Houzel) and the clinician’s mental positioning as a parental couple, along with implications for the phrasing of comments. A vignette illustrates the importance of the clinician’s individual identity and private associations in allowing the child to feel seen without being engulfed, and to show capacities that may otherwise be kept hidden.

Maria Rhode is Emeritus Professor of Child Psychotherapy at the Tavistock Clinic/University of East London, a member of the Association of Child Psychotherapists and a Child Analyst of the British Psychoanalytical Society. She trained at the Tavistock, where she was supervised by Martha Harris, Donald Meltzer and Frances Tustin, and later co-convened the Autism Workshop. She is particularly interested in autism, childhood psychosis and infant observation, and has published papers and book chapters on these subjects, including several co-edited books; most recently, she published the outcome of an audited case series of toddlers at risk of autism. She is a recipient of the Frances Tustin Memorial Prize, and is on the board of the Frances Tustin Memorial Trust and the International Journal of Psychoanalysis.