The Conversation: Leon posits that Autism is a unique mode-of-being that is different from other structures of the human psyche that psychoanalysis has thus far taken into account. He proposes the Autistic Linguistic Spectrum as an alternative to the popular Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) framework, urging us to move away from treating Autism as a developmental disorder and instead see it as a valid subjective position that is inseparably linked to one’s identity and basic practices of existence.

Dr. Leon S. Brenner (www.leonbrenner.com) is a psychoanalytic theorist and psychological counselor from Berlin. Brenner’s work draws from the Freudian and Lacanian traditions of psychoanalysis, and his interest lies in the understanding of the relationship between culture and psychopathology. He is a founder of Lacanian Affinities Berlin and Unconscious Berlin and is currently a research fellow at the International Psychoanalytic University Berlin and the Hans Kilian und Lotte Köhler Centrum (KKC).