The Autistic Subject: On the Threshold of Language

by Leon S. Brenner

Overview

This book presents a theory of autistic subjectivity from a Lacanian psychoanalytic perspective. Dr. Brenner describes autism as a singular mode of being that is fundamentally linked to one’s identity and basic practices of existence, offering a rigorous alternative to treating autism as a mental or physical disorder. Drawing on Freud and Lacan’s psychoanalytic understanding of the subject, Brenner outlines the unique features of the autistic subjective structure and provides a comprehensive synthesis of contemporary work on the psychoanalysis of autism. 

The book examines research by theorists including Jean-Claude Maleval, Éric Laurent, Rosine and Robert Lefort that has been largely unavailable to Anglophone audiences until now. In this book autism is posited to be a singular subjective structure not reducible to neurosis or psychosis. In accordance with the Lacanian approach, autism is examined with detailed attention to the subject’s use of language, culminating in Brenner’s “autistic linguistic spectrum.” A compelling read for students and scholars of psychoanalysis and autism researchers and clinicians.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9783030507152
Publisher:	Palgrave Macmillan
Publication date:	09/21/2020
Series:	The Palgrave Lacan Series
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
File size:	4 MB

About the Author

Leon S. Brenner is a research fellow at the University of Potsdam, Institute for Philosophy, Germany. His fields of interest include Lacanian psychoanalysis, philosophy of mind, contemporary French philosophy and autism research.

Table of Contents

Introduction by Jean-Claude Maleval.- Part I: Subjectivity Negativity.- Chapter 1. Autism as a Mode of Being.- Chapter 2. Exclusion as a Constitutive Feature of the Subject.- Part II: Neurotic Repression and Psychotic Foreclosure.- Chapter 3: Repression and the Neurotic Subject.- Chapter 4: Foreclosure and the Psychotic Subject.- Part III: The Autistic Subject.- Chapter 5: Autistic Foreclosure in the Model of Repression.- Chapter 6: The Object of Autistic Foreclosure.- Chapter 7: The Autistic Linguistic Spectrum.- Chapter 8: Autism as a Singular Subjective Structure.

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

“Contemporary studies of autism strongly rely on cognitive and neurobiological approaches. This comprehensive and comprehensible book demonstrates that Lacanian psychoanalysis provides a viable alternative. Brenner discusses multiple works that are only available in French, thus opening up perspectives that are not well understood in the English-speaking world.”

(Stijn Vanheule, author of The Subject of Psychosis: A Lacanian Perspective (2011))

“It is no exaggeration to say that The Autistic Subject is a groundbreaking contribution to the study of autism. Brenner’s clear and well-written account, based on Lacan, is both refreshingly new and creatively original.”

(Russell Grigg, author of Lacan, Language, and Philosophy (2009))