This book explores some of the ways which Tustin's work has enabled psychoanalytic clinicians to enter into the elemental domain of sensation: what Bion called the 'proto-mental' area of the psyche-soma.

Frances Tustin Today explores some of the ways and means by which Tustin's work has enabled psychoanalytic clinicians to enter into the elemental domain of sensation: what Bion called the 'proto-mental' area of the psyche-soma. Through detailed clinical contributions of several of her exponents worldwide, this book demonstrates how her ideas -- rooted in decades of work with children on the autistic spectrum -- have influenced and are being expanded, extended and applied to the treatment of ordinary patients from early childhood through adulthood. The contributors to this volume represent a selection of the contemporary thinking that organically grew out of Tustin's discoveries, and show that Tustin's model has added new dimensions to the fields of infant observation, family therapy and neuro-psychology. Each chapter is augmented by demonstrable clinical experience. Frances Tustin Today is a valuable resource for psychoanalysts, psychotherapists, educators and parents who are interested in learning more about this uniquely independent clinical observer's findings and their impact upon the treatment of autistic states in children, adolescents and adults by contemporary workers in the field of mental health.¿ Judith L. Mitrani, and Theodore Mitrani, are Fellows of The International Psycho-Analytical Association, Training and Supervising Psychoanalysts at The Psychoanalytic Center of California in Los Angeles. They are founding members of the Board of Trustees of The Frances Tustin Memorial Trust, and authors, editors, translators and teachers in the private practice of psychoanalysis and psychoanalytic therapy with Adults and Children in Los Angeles, California.¿¿

Frances Tustin is an icon within British Object-Relations psychoanalysis.?It is good to have in this book, a sustained tribute to her ideas and to their significant and enduring contribution.? Her tradition of learning fundamental truths from autistic conditions remains lively, productive and inspiring..? Tustin's work sustains one of the founding principles of Object-Relations work - that the depth of psychoanalytic ideas is enhanced by rigorous work with children. As that long-held view - going back to the innovative work of Anna Freud and Melanie Klein - has weakened over time, granting a more exclusive place to work with adults, it is important to have this book to redress that imbalance. This collection draws us back to the fundamental questions about working with another mind.? How can one conceive of the object relations of a mind that can barely sustain the possibility of relating to others?? It is commonplace to regard psychoanalysis as a body of knowledge derived from what goes wrong, but what can be learned about a mind that has gone so radically and despairingly wrong? It is evident from the wide range of papers presented here, that?indeed??much can be learned from the work with children, contributing that which is not accessible in the work with adults alone. This book is a celebration of clinical and therapeutic confidence from those who have actually persevered in the presence of severe autism, those who have managed to form a joint venture with their suffering young patients, both large and small. - Bob Hinshelwood, Professor, Centre for Psychoanalytic Studies, University of Essex