Autistic twisted loops

ABSTRACT The paper describes a deceptive kind of autistic encapsulation, charact-erised by pseudo-internal space and distortions in the normal development of psychophysical space. It introduces the metaphor of loops as spatial-temporal organisations that illuminate three aspects of autistic encapsulation, two of which were first described by Frances Tustin. Three types of loops – simple, twisted and double-twisted – are explored. The paper delineates the double-twisted loop as an additional and more complex manifestation, typical to post-autistic organisation. Here, symbolic thinking and communication function as a disguise, obscuring the child’s trajectory on an infinite continuum that folds around itself, thus denying the potential for separateness and preventing the accumulative realisation of mental space. Using two clinical vignettes, the author shows how such a presentation leaves the therapist in danger of being tempted by the child’s pseudo-internal world, while remaining dissociated from their developmental needs.