Autistic Rims and Their Vicissitudes

Abstract

According to Lacan, the rim of the drive is involved in the initiation and preservation of the relationship between the body and language. In the study of autism, a major hypothesis states that the rim of the drive is foreclosed for the autistic subject. This foreclosure causes the drive circuit to short-circuit, thus jeopardizing the preservation of the relationship between the body and language. This paper puts forward the idea that autistic subjects supplement this privation through the construction of secondary rims that enable the “delimitation” of jouissance, giving rise to a unique psychic dynamism. The notion of the rim is developed, and its vicissitudes are presented and divided into three versatile types: protective rims, systemizing rims, and incorporating rims. Each of these represents a particular dynamism in the autistic subject’s engagement with the body, knowledge, and the social bond. Each one dictates a different mode of operation for the subject and, in this sense, necessitates a distinct psychoanalytic position in the treatment and facilitation of autism. In the clinical and theoretical elaboration of the vicissitudes of the rim, several significant notions pertaining to autism are discussed such as: aloneness, sameness, autistic objects, stimming, special interests, camouflaging, and nonbinary gender identities.

Keywords:

• New Phenomenology Keyword: New Phenomenology
• Psychic Being Keyword: Psychic Being
• Real Unconscious Keyword: Real Unconscious
• sensation Keyword: sensation
• transformation Keyword: transformation

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Rights: In Copyright