ESCUTEM OS AUTISTAS: CONTRIBUIÇÕES DE JEAN-CLAUDE MALEVAL PARA A HIPÓTESE DE ESTRUTURA AUTÍSTICA

This theoretical paper examines Jean-Claude Maleval’s contributions to understanding autism as a clinical structure and outlines consequences for psychoanalytic practice. Building on the historical debate that either aligned autism with psychosis or treated it as a fourth structure/a-structure, the paper presents Maleval’s three pillars: (1) initial retention of drive objects (voice, gaze, oral and anal); (2) retained alienation without the master signifier’s hinge; and (3) apparatus of jouissance by the border (autistic objects, islands of competence, the double). In dialogue with Éric Laurent, it discusses border/neoborder and the foreclosure of the hole, situating autism’s specific return of jouissance. Practical implications include entering treatment via the border (rather than forcing S1), securing the subject’s consent, sustaining a non-intrusive transference, and leveraging idiosyncratic inventions as social mediations. Maleval’s framework invites us to listen to autistic people in their own logic of language and jouissance, shifting away from normalizing practices and opening ethical avenues for care and inclusion.Keywords: autism; clinical structure; psychoanalysis; jouissance; language; border.