Explorations in Autism is a turning-point in both the understanding of and the clinical approach to autism. The clinical material gradually unveils the geography of the internal mother (which proved crucial for the development of Meltzer's 'claustrum' theory) and allowed him to draft, for the first time in psychoanalysis, a theory of the dimensionality of mental life Explorations inAutism is a turning-point in both the understanding of and the clinical approach to autism. The clinical material gradually unveils the geography of the internal mother (which proved crucial for the development of Meltzer's 'claustrum' theory) and allowed him to draft, for the first time in psychoanalysis, a theory of the dimensionality of mental life." Carmo di Sousa Lima, Portuguese Psychoanalytical Society - 01/04/2020 "The rigorous exploration reported in this book has shed a totally new light on the subjective experience of autistic children and hence on the primitive developmental phases of every human mind. A new metapsychological model of the psyche stems from the description here of fundamental concepts like primal depression, dismantling, adhesive identity, dimensionality as a parameter of mental functioning." Didier Houzel, French Psychoanalytical Association and Professor of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, University of Caen - 01/04/2020 "Donald Meltzer's brilliant "lessons" supervising my analysis of a post-autistic boy have increased my psychoanalytical instruments for investigating the transference and countertransference: how to observe emotional and behavioural facts during the session (not only verbalizations), and how to seek out my own dream images in order to carry on with the analysis." Marisa Pelella Mélega, Brazilian Psychoanalytical Society, Sao Paulo - 01/04/2020 "These modalities observed in autistic children have a more general scope than in psychopathology and even lead us to rethink certain basic concepts in psychoanalysis. The research recorded in this book allowed Meltzer to come into contact with children who were unable to form an object containing a space to be used in their mental development. Later, using conclusions drawn from this work, Meltzer went on to formulate the "aesthetic conflict" in a book which pairs with this one: :The Apprehension of Beauty" (1988)." Virginia Ungar, Buenos Aires Psychoanalytical Association, Chair, IPA - 01/04/2020 "Meltzer's understanding of sense perception and language development is inspiring. He was so far ahead of his time that we are only beginning to realise how he anticipated recent developmental research. In this book, by way of clinical work, he extended the scope of psychoanalysis to wide new fields of thought." Maria Rhode, emerita Professor of Child Psychotherapy, Tavistock Clinic/University of East London - 01/04/2020 Donald Meltzer (1923-2004) was born in New York and studied medicine at Yale. After practising as a psychiatrist specialising in children and families, he moved to England to have analysis with Melanie Klein in the 1950s, and for some years was a training analyst with the British Society. He worked with both adults and children, and was innovative in the treatment of autistic children; in the treatment of children he worked closely with Esther Bick and Martha Harris whom he later married. He taught child psychiatry and psychoanalytic history at the Tavistock Clinic. He also took a special scholarly interest in art and aesthetics, based on a lifelong love of art. Meltzer taught widely and regularly in many countries, in Europe, Scandinavia, and North and South America, and his books have been published in many languages and continue to be increasingly influential in the teaching of psychoanalysis. His first book, >The Psychoanalytical Process>, was published by Heinemann in 1967 and was received with some suspicion (like all his books) by the psychoanalytic establishment. Subsequent books were published by Clunie Press for the Roland Harris Educational Trust which he set up together with Martha Harris (now the Harris Meltzer Trust). >The Process> was followed by >Sexual States of Mind> in 1973, >Explorations in Autism> in 1975; >The Kleinian Development> in 1978 (his lectures on Freud, Klein and Bion given to students at the Tavistock); >Dream Life> in 1984; >The Apprehension of Beauty> in 1988 (with Meg Harris Williams); and >The Claustrum> in 1992.