This review provides an overview of contemporary psychoanalytic approaches, and discusses the characteristics of autism spectrum disorders(ASD)and autism spectrum(AS)mentality in this context. Psychoanalysis, although a system of theoretical terms, is a therapeutic practice performed in a constant setting and with a specific attitude. Unlike in Freud's time, contemporary psychoanalytic approaches are not constrained by the pursuit of speculation-ridden etiologies. They aim at therapeutic intervention, modeled on "growth" and "restoration of relationships", rather than dissolving disorders or corrections, to enable patients to gain psychic resilience and a better understanding of themselves and others as they share experiences with their therapist. Thus, psychoanalytic approaches are not for a particular disorder, but they can provide an opportunity for experiencing and understanding what is specific to the disorders. The link between psychoanalytic approaches and autistic spectrum disorders was previously described by Klein, M., Winnicott, D., and others working with children before the concept of "autism". Even after the organic basis for the disorder was established as common knowledge, Tustin, F. and those thereafter treated cases of confirmed autistic disorder through the psychoanalytic approach. Their findings of the unique relationships and anxiety, such as "autistic objects" "autistic shapes"and "a black hole" are valuable for understanding the nature of the autistic personality. These days, instead of starting psychotherapy with the awareness of the presence of the ASD, it is more likely that becomes known or is unnoticed during the course of therapy. This has provided opportunities for the psychoanalytic understanding of the AS mentality in adults, but it also means that the core principle of the triangular relationship of the psychoanalytic approach, i. e., to become able to understand the relationship from a metalevel whilst staying in it, does not work with ASD. This is a methodological crisis for traditional psychoanalysis. In these circumstances, psychoanalytic approaches, based on its value-neutral attitude, can help not only with interaction with the non-autistic parts of the patient, but also with understanding the numerous manifestations of AS patients as their unique "forms of life" (Wittgenstein, L.) and promoting interpersonal coexistence of AS and non-AS individuals.
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