16

The author offers a reflection on the construction of body image, in regard to sexual and generational differentiation, based on a detailed presentation of her psychoanalytic treatment of a girl in the autistic spectrum between the ages of 8 and 15. The author describes the oscillations and successive forms through which the transference passes and shows the dynamic way in which interpretation functions to help overcome the regressive movements encountered at each new stage in the process and to access new symbolic capacities. These range from sensation based representations and the construction of the very first psychic spaces, right up until the beginnings of a possible narcissistic integration during adolescence.