La perspective créatrice de l’autisme : le cas extraordinaire de l’autiste peintre Iris Grace

Objectives

The aim of this work is to examine the subjective relationship of autistic subjects to artistic creation, particularly graphic creation. More specifically, it examines the conditions under which graphic creativity can be an autistic subject's preferred means of directing the excess impulses that invade him or her into an out-of-body object, and thereby opening up the possibility of creating a multidimensional space for him- or herself.

Method

Critical analysis of the main theories in the scientific literature on the graphic abilities of autistic subjects. Confrontation of the hypotheses of a cognitive deficit and those of a psychodynamic current. We propose our theoretical development based on a case study. Psychodynamic study of the functions of art and, more generally, of creativity and inventiveness in autistic subjects.

Results

Painting allowed Iris Grace to build her relationship to the world, to her body, to others, and to speech, that is to say, to build a real subjective dynamic. Iris Grace's graphic creativity testifies to one autistic subject's preference for directing an invasive instinctual excess onto paper, into an out-of-body object, thereby allowing her to create a multidimensional space where libido, body, and link to the other were unfolded and complexified.

Discussion

The use of drawings, and their infinite details, allows us to see that artistic creation raises the question of writing. We develop the link with the use of computerized devices and their 3D software: certain autistic subjects prefer this mode of writing because the computer allows them to isolate, in details, the dimensions of the language. Each form, each place, each color, each detail, all these “Ones” lead us to consider that the work of autistic subjects is more about making a consistent whole out of these “Ones”. What clinical work with autistic people teaches us is how effective it is to bet on the strengths of each individual, even if they are first and foremost fixation, obsession, or focus. In this way, they can have some chance of being invested as an out-of-body object, enabling the creation of a multidimensional space. This is not to suggest that painting and/or drawing can be a therapy for every autistic person, or a particularly suitable form of art mediation.

Conclusion

Supporting the creativity of each autistic person in this way helps them to deal with excess jouissance, and to locate it on an edge, thus facilitating the regulation of libido and drives, thanks to the creation of a link and an openness to the world and to learning. In institutional care, it's a question of welcoming the autistic subject as he or she presents him- or herself, welcoming the real the subject has to deal with, and ensuring that his or her creation and inventiveness, whatever it may be, is increasingly cobbled together as a Borromean knot; in short, guaranteeing the construction of a subjective dynamic, so that art, invention, or affinity can rise to the level of a sinthome.