The autistic pseudosignifier: Imaginary dialectization of signs in the clinic of autism

Abstract

Specificities in language and speech development are a defining feature of autism. Several psychoanalysts have hypothesized that these specificities originate in a unique mode of access to language that exclusively relies on signs rather than signifiers. Compared to the flexibility and dynamism of a language made of signifiers, a language made of signs is rigid, cumbersome, and poor in its capacity to encode complex concepts. This article investigates the supplementary methods that autistic subjects adopt to compensate for these setbacks, methods that enable them to encode complex concepts into their vocabulary using iconic signs. These methods are then developed into a psychoanalytic theory on the use of iconic signs in the strengthening of autistic language in the context of art therapy. A variety of case studies are then used to illustrate how newly gained access to a level of conceptual complexity can also bring dramatic changes to their lives.