The treatment of people with autism at the Institute of Psychology of USP: some historical considerations

• Grant number: 24/15675-8
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date until: November 01, 2024
• End date until: October 31, 2025
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - Psychology - Psychological Treatment and Prevention
• Principal Investigator: Marlene Guirado
• Grantee: João Haick Mallard Fonseca
• Host Institution: Instituto de Psicologia (IP). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil

Abstract

The history of autism treatment is directly linked to a context of political disputes and the search for legitimacy. Since the creation of the diagnosis by psychiatrist Leo Kanner in 1943, there have been disagreements between what the scientific knowledge of the time stated as the cause of this disorder (mainly blaming the child's relationship with the mother) and the parents of children diagnosed with autism who, not accepting the imposition of such causality, formed support groups and conducted independent research. Later, with the increased study and search for understanding of Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), different psychotherapeutic approaches began to have different understandings of ASD, consequently causing a search for legitimacy mainly between psychoanalysis and Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA). At the Institute of Psychology of the University of São Paulo, there has been care for children with ASD since 1990, however, there was a change in care programs: initially, the extension project was associated with the psychoanalytic approach, whereas, nowadays, the current project is associated with the behavioral approach, using ABA. This research, therefore, aims to understand, through interviews with professionals wich will be analyzed by Institutional Discourse Analysis, why such a change occurred and whether it involves the narrative and political disputes that permeate the subject.