[PDF] JPE 2006, n°38 "Frances Tustin" - Garderie Et Préscolaire

Early Life and Career

Tustin was born Frances Vickers in Darlington in 1913. She trained as a primary school teacher before developing an interest in psychoanalysis. She married twice; her second marriage to engineering professor Arnold Tustin was a long and happy one, although the couple suffered the sadness of stillbirths. In 1952, along with Martha Harris and Dina Ro...

Autism and Bodily Sensations

Tustin’s first paper on autism, ‘A significant element in the development of autism: A psychoanalytic approach’, was published in 1966. John, the three-year-old whom she analysed for three years, developed language and subsequently went to university. He famously showed her that he had believed that the ‘red button’ (his word for the nipple) was pa...

Understanding Autism’S Self-Protective Strategies

Tustin became aware that the phenomena she was encountering were difficult to theorise in terms of the Kleinian concepts of splitting and projective identification. She recognised that Winnicottand Mahler had described similar states, and this led her to adopt some of their theoretical framework, including the idea of a normal, primary stage at whi...

‘Autistic Objects’ and ‘Autistic Shapes’

In Tustin’s own view, her main contribution lay in understanding these sensation-based mechanisms, which protect the child but interfere with his openness to help from other human beings. ‘Autistic objects’ (1980a) are hard sources of sensation that make the child feel strong, whereas ‘autistic shapes’ (1984), such as patterns made with the child’s...

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Who is Frances Tustin?

This article relies largely or entirely on a single source. Frances Tustin (born Frances Daisy Vickers; 1913 in Northern England) was a pioneering child psychotherapist renowned for her work with children with autism in the 1950s. She became a teacher and began studying psychoanalysis in 1943 at the University of London.

What is the Frances Tustin Memorial Trust?

The Frances Tustin Memorial Trust awards an annual prize for papers addressing the treatment of autistic states in children, adolescents or adults.

How did Frances Tustin contribute to the development of psychoanalysis?

Her contribution to the development of psychoanalysis was recognized in 1984 by the British Psychoanalytical Society, which awarded her the rare status of Honorary Affiliate Member. The Frances Tustin Memorial Trust awards an annual prize for papers addressing the treatment of autistic states in children, adolescents or adults.

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