THE WALL - Psychoanalysis put to the test of autism
SYNOPSIS
THE WALL, Psychoanalysis put to the test of autism outlines the psychoanalytical views of autism, with the words of ten psychoanalysts and a paediatrician close to the Lacanian perspective. This is the first time that professionals have developed their theories in plain language. Sophie Robert shows their long-held strong views on the cause of autism: a psychosis induced by poor mother-infant relationship, and the perspectives of psychoanalytical care: therapeutical nihilism leading to institutionalization for life.
THE WALL, Psychoanalysis put to the test of autism ,was directed in 2011 by Sophie Robert, and produced by OCÉAN INVISIBLE PRODUCTIONS, in partnership with the foundation AUTISTES SANS FRONTIÈRES (Autism without borders, hereafter AUTISTES SANS FRONTIÈRES) chaired by Vincent Gerhards advocates for children’s school attendance.
French-speaking countries are more than 40 years behind concerning care for autistic persons, compared to other developed countries. For this reason, France has been condemned five times by the Council of Europe for serious failure in its obligations towards persons with autism. The reasons are given for 52 minutes.
In those countries, psychiatry is still largely dominated by psychoanalysis. However, psychoanalysts claim a hegemonic position, whereas their praxis is based on unscientific theories which have not progressed for one century.
This film has removed the wall of silence that hangs over care for people with pervasive developmental disorders in France, the French-speaking part of Switzerland and Belgium.
Released in September 2011 on the AUTISTES SANS FRONTIÈRES website, the film virally reached the whole world within a few days. Then three of the psychoanalysts interviewed filed an emergency lawsuit; the film was banned for two years, and wholly allowed to be broadcasted again by the Court of Appeal in Douai on January 16th 2014.
THE WALL, Psychoanalysis put to the test of autism, is the very first part of a three-feature-film series – La psychanalyse dévoilée – aiming to unveil the fundamentals of the psychoanalytical theory and praxis via those who practice and pass it, i.e. 25 psychoanalysts and 3 similar professionals.
Indeed, psychoanalysts are another French exception: they have almost disappeared in the rest of the world, but are claiming in France a form of mighty and unlimited power on the treatement of mental disorders. However, very few French people are unable to understand their jargon and their way of thinking, protected by a speech particularly opaque, featuring many contradictions that have a stunning effect on their listeners.
It is the result of a four-year investigation with 52 psychoanalysts, a psychoanalytical anthropology work and a situational analysis up to date. It explains why, after failing to become a therapy, psychoanalysis has become after many decades a sect whose ideology is passed through a more and more fundamentalist interpretation of "founding fathers’" texts.
This documentary trilogy aims to understand and question perspectives together: a prerequisite to a national debate on psychoanalysis to be conducted in France, regarding its huge influence in psychiatry, the medico-social sector and justice (legal experts).
PSYCHOANALYSTS INTERVIEWED
Dr. Alexandre STEVENS, psychiatrist-psychoanalyst head of belgian institution Le Courtil, which hosts 250 autistic children
Eric LAURENT, psychoanalyst and ECF member
Esthela SOLANO-SUAREZ, psychologist-psychoanalyst specialised in autism and ECF member
Pr. Bernard GOLSE, psychoanalyst, head of the children’s psychatric department of the French hospital Necker
Pr. Pierre DELION, psychoanalyst, head of children’s psychatric department of the University Regional Hospital in Lille
Dr. Geneviève LOISON, psychiatrist-psychoanalyst, referent paediatric psychiatrist in the Lille Metropolis
Laurent DANON-BOILEAU, linguist and psychoanalyst in the centre Alfred Binet for autistic children
Pr. Daniel WIDLOCHER, psychoanalyst, former head of the psychiatric department of the hospital Pitié Salpêtrière
Jacqueline SCHAEFFER, psychoanalyst, author of several essays on feminity.
Yann BOGOPOLSKI, psychoanalyst of Kleinian orientation, specialized in incest and crimes against children
Dr. Aldo NAOURI, paediatrician of Lacanian orientation, author of essays on mother-infant relationship
