Barrer, Laurence <br/><br/>
The Body’s Place in Psychoanalytic Psychodrama with Autistic Children 

 -  2011.<br/>							 
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<br/><br/> A fundamental issue in psychotherapy concerns the psychic processes that enable a patient to begin the process of change and development. The present authors aim to show the possible development of the function of the protective shield in psychoanalytic psychodrama in a intermediate group with autistic and psychotic children. They stress the importance of the participants’ and the co-therapists’ bodies in movement, which enables everyone to find psychic support in the group. They also stress how, starting with the therapist’s body and the group, the children develop the ability to organize group associative chains which integrate the productions of every group member. Two specific rules proposed in these groups accentuate the containing function and contribute to the emergence of processes of introjection of the function of stimulus barrier for each participant. The article describes a form of therapy adapted to the problems of autistic children, and how they can make use of it.