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Relationships between autistic children and others
In his novel “Murs”, Jacques Vazeille, child psychiatrist and autism specialist for 20 years, tells the story of Samson, a 25-year-old young man with Asperger’s disease and Mine, a 12-year-old teenager. Between them will be woven an incredible and exclusive relationship, after all quite rare. This fictionalized fiction makes it possible to imagine what types of relationships can exist between a person with autism and one who is not …
A constructible and destructible relationship
When Jacques Vazeille imagined the story of Samson, 25, with Asperger’s autism, and Mine, a 12-year-old teenager, lively and very imaginative, the child psychiatrist remembered a young man with autism he had taken care of. in the past. “The young autistic man, whom I was taking care of, presented with severe disorders and unusual bouts of violence. With the psychologist, we had the idea of offering her something constructive and destructible. We put a wall of cardboard boxes in his room ”. This way of proposing something new completely destabilized him. “ It was a way of offering him something he could be violent with. But he took a long time to dare to approach her. In the end he destroyed it to pieces », Says the specialist. From this lived story, Jacques Vazeille wrote his novel and imagined the relationship with the character, Mine. He also keeps the idea of the wall. For him, it is possible that a child with autism, and one who does not, will establish a relationship. “People with Asperger’s disease have a reputation for having better relationships with others than other people with autism. But, let us not forget that, even if they have sometimes extraordinary intellectual capacities, they suffer enormously from the fact that they can only establish few social relations in the end ”, specifies the child psychiatrist.
A wall that allows communication
In “Walls”, the two main characters, Samson and Mine, meet next to the party wall to their house. Little by little, they manage to communicate over a fairly long period. “Meeting the other is a learning process for oneself, the best way to break down the walls that enclose certainties,” explains Jacques Vazeille. The character of Mine tries at all costs to get in touch with Samson, sometimes even in public. She realizes, gradually, that the young man is different, that he behaves strangely when they see each other elsewhere than behind “their” wall, their secret. A relationship is born between them. Particularly because Mine is very inventive and cheerful by nature. Little by little, the young girl understands that Samson is in a specialized establishment, for sick people and people with disabilities such as autism.
Nice meeting
“If a 4 year old boy plays with sand autistically and another little guy of the same age comes along to offer him a car game, there will be hardly any reaction from the first one. Even if he is in demand, he will continue to play with the sand in a stereotypical way, ”explains the specialist. Superficial contact is possible. It is the child who is not autistic who will make all the efforts to interact and he will have very little interest in return. On the other hand, if it is a little girl, it will be very different. “A little girl is more caring, more protective of the other. While the boys are more in a role of solicitation, more direct ”, specifies Jacques Vazeille.
Few emotions
In his experience as a psychiatrist, Jacques Vazeille realized that autistic people are extremely sensitive people. “Autistic people have a special way of seeing the world. Their field of emotions is flat, like a surface. Time, imagination do not exist. For example, the relational distance, when it is there, is given only once, ”explains the child psychiatrist. The emotions are brutal and take up all the space. “If there is anger, that’s just it. If it’s sadness, ditto, it’s just that ”. This is why the diagnosis is very important. The sooner it is placed, the easier it will be to offer care to the autistic child. “Parents who ask themselves questions, those who wonder if their child is autistic, very often have found the answer themselves”, concludes Jacques Vazeille.