Descripción
The present study sets out to establish a dialogue between psychoanalytic theory and
cognitive-behavioral therapy on autism in order to demonstrate the disagreements and
possible approximations between them. To this end we describe psychoanalytic concepts of
the English tradition, such as the psychic development of a baby and its relationship with the
mother/carer and the facilitating environment (Winnicott, 1989), the development of the
pychosome (Winnicott, 1949), facilitation of the emergence of the self objects (Klein, 1937)
and the appearance of the desire for knowledge (Bion, 1967). In cognitive-behavioral therapy
we describe the proposals of the ABA and TEACCH method, as well as the main features of
the cognitivist approach . They have discussed autism as a question of cognitive deficit
(Baron-Cohen, Leslie & Frith, 1985), emphasizing the discussions on the process of attention,
memory, sensibility and stimuli of language. Despite the major distinctions regarding the
scientific method, the way of caring therapeutically for the individuals with autism and the
different expectations of cure, a possible articulation between psychoanalytic and
cognitive-behavioral therapy can be established. For neuroscience and the discussions on the
social brain (Laurentino, 2020), on the basis of the idea of the Theory of the Mind (ToM), we
conclude that this may be a bridge between their two theories, respecting the profound
differences.