Neurobiological Insights For Psychoanalysts Working With Autistic Children

December 30, 2006 – 7:59 am | posted in Autism, Conferences, Neurology / Neuroscience, Psychology / Psychiatry

Psychoanalysts seeking a greater understanding of autism will participate in the “Psychoanalytic Approaches to Working with Children with Autistic Spectrum Disorder: Insights from Neurobiology” discussion group at the American Psychoanalytic Association’s 2007 Winter Meeting. The discussion group will be held on Wednesday, January 17th, from 7:30-10 p.m. at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel.

According to a recent Newsweek magazine article, autistic spectrum disorder is estimated to affect as many as 500,000 Americans under the age of 21. Martha Herbert, M.D., Ph.D., instructor of neurology at Harvard Medical School, will address the analytic audience regarding the changes that occur to the brain when a patient is psychoanalytically treated. Her studies show that the autistic brain can evolve; that is, neuro-pathways can begin to regenerate between the cognitive and emotional sections of the brain.

The discussion group will be co-chaired by William M. Singletary, M.D., a faculty member of the Psychoanalytic Center of Philadelphia’s Child Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy Program, and Susan P. Sherkow, M.D., a supervising analyst of both the Child and Adolescent Divisions of the New York Psychoanalytic Institute and of the Berkshire Institute and Society for Psychoanalysis.

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