[Usefulness of the concepts of "epigenesis" and "auto-organization" to understand the autistic child syndrome].

This article, based more on speculation than on clinical work, aims at clarifying the nature of child autistic syndromes using two elements: epigenetic findings concerning the construction of human brain and the idea that there is a self-organizing development and functioning of the living. First initiated by H. Atlan (1979) and A. Bourguignon (1981), this approach could lead to a fruitful understanding of autistic disturbances, both consistent with developmental neurobiology and psychodynamics. This approach integrates clinical, paraclinical, follow-up and experimental data related to these disturbances. It also might lead to new therapeutic approaches which we are in the process of investigating.