Child Colloquium Series

This presentation describes the multi-year psychotherapy of a young boy on the autism spectrum. Many children diagnosed with ASD have unique sensory processing challenges. Extensive clinical material is offered to illustrate how sensation and emotion impact the development of a “felt-self”, an idea developed by an English student of Melanie Klein, Donald Winnicott, and Wilfred Bion named Frances Tustin. Tustin’s ideas on the sensory aspects of self development are presented alongside the process of symbolization that allowed this boy to tolerate awareness of his sensory experience, make connections with others, and symbolize and express his emotional experience over time. The lecture emphasizes following the changes in the child’s picture of the world as his capacity for symbolizing develops.

Jeffrey L Eaton, MA, FIPA is a graduate and faculty member of the Northwestern Psychoanalytic Society and Institute and a member of the IPA. He was awarded the 10th International Frances Tustin Memorial Lecture Prize in 2006. He is author of A Fruitful Harvest: Essays after Bion as well as numerous chapters in edited collections. He teaches, lectures, and supervises internationally. He is in private practice in Seattle, WA. Further information is available at www.jleaton.com

Anne Alvarez, PhD, M.A.C.P is a Consultant Child and Adolescent Psychotherapist. She is the retired Co-Convener of the Autism Service, Child and Family Department, Tavistock Clinic, London, where she still teaches. She is author of Live Company: Psychotherapy with Autistic, Borderline, Deprived and Abused Children. and has edited with Susan Reid, Autism and Personality: Findings from the Tavistock Autism Workshop. A book in her honor, edited by Judith Edwards, entitled Being Alive: Building on the Work of Anne Alvarez was published in 2002. She was Visiting Professor at the San Francisco Psychoanalytic Society in November 2005 and is an Honorary Member of the Psychoanalytic Centre of California. Her latest book, The Thinking Heart: Three Levels of Psychoanalytic Therapy with Disturbed Children was published in April 2012 by Routledge.