[Infantile autism in France in 1994]

The author tries, in is own, name to translate the French position on early child autism. This position can be expressed through a few acceptable points for the majority of French professionals, obviously without any idea of a consensus. The concept of a plurifactorial determinism and the psychopathological view of the disorder which is not thought of in France as susceptible to be reduced to a handicap of a primarily cognitive nature are therefore underlined. Thus the importance of a unified multidimensional therapeutic approach that considers the different consequences of the illness without forgetting its fundamentally interactive nature ("autistic-making process"). Today, the psychoanalytic approach tends to concentrate on the analysis of secondary factors of upholding and on the significance given in the after-thought by the autistic disorders within the family group. This opens the way to a collaboration between specialists of the different disciplines that are involved, including those who work in the field of neuroscience.