THE PROTECTIVE SHELL IN CHILDREN AND ADULTS

Summary of The Protective Shell in Children and Adults

In The Protective Shell in Children and Adults (1990), Frances Tustin explores autism as a powerful protective response to overwhelming emotional experiences. She focuses particularly on the concept of the “autistic shell” or encapsulation, through which the individual attempts to protect themselves from anxiety and feelings that are experienced as unbearable.

Tustin draws on her psychotherapeutic work with autistic children and extends her observations to certain neurotic and psychologically disturbed adults. She suggests that autistic forms of protection can interfere with emotional, cognitive, and social development by limiting contact with external reality and other people.

A central theme of the book is the use of autistic sensation objects and sensation shapes as defensive experiences. Tustin argues that understanding these protective processes is important for psychoanalytic treatment, because the therapist needs to recognize the function of the defensive shell before helping the patient develop a greater capacity for contact, emotional experience, and relationships.