This paper discusses the differences between the diagnosis of the infantile autism and the one of psychosis in infancy. It shows the lack of agreement among psychoanalysts who have written about this theme and proposes a way of establishing the diagnostic difference: autism can be stated as a fail in maternal function, and psychosis as a fail in paternal function.
Diagnosis; Autistic children; Childhood psychosis; Mother child relations; Father child relations; Psychoanalysis; Language