This article aims to develop a psychoanalytical discussion on the diagnostic issue involving psychosis in children and the autism spectrum disorder. We deem it essential to build a diagnostic hypothesis to guide the analysis, to make out the subtleties that involve their different diagnostics and to emphasize the caution required to think about the psychic structure in childhood. Thus, we tried to delineate the place of diagnostic for psychoanalysis in relation to psychiatry and to investigate the place that psychosis in children and autism spectrum disorder hold in psychoanalytical theory. A literature review allowed us to conclude that it has been possible to build a path that may guide the formulation of a diagnostic hypothesis.
Key words:
Autism; psychosis in children; psychoanalysis; diagnostic