Travail d’élaboration de la souffrance psychique et investissement des parents ayant un adolescent vivant avec le trouble du spectre autistique : une étude de 03 cas.

Abstract

We entitled our work: «Working on the elaboration of psychical suffering and investment of parents on adolescent living with Autism Spectrum Disorder: this study is expatiated on three (03) cases ». In this line, by observing parents living with a teenager suffering from autism in our environment, in specialized centers and institutions, we noticed on one hand that, some parents are discouraged when accompanying their male or female teenager living with autism to the center, some other does not allow their children to registrar to functional alphabetization. On the other hand, it was observed that other parents were very enthusiastic and motivated. Christophe du Bled (2003) cited by (Schmutz-Gyger, 2012) considers the different problems faced by parents living with a child suffering from autism, in occurrence of his talks on the announcement of this disability, a process of mourning the so-called normal child( which can take more or less time. The main stages of grief are initial shock, denial, hopelessness or depression and the stage of acceptance). Parents in this situation are faced with rhetorical questions that shake their psychological balance and generate stress, anxiety, and guilt just to name a few. However, as Cyrulnik and Duval (2000) states that, when an individual is confronted with adversities, he will mobilize the internal and external resources present in his life to enable him to adapt to adversity. It is facing and continues to plan for the future. Indeed, the problem posed by our study is that of the investment of parents with an adolescent living with autism spectrum disorder. From this problem stems the research question: «How does the work of elaborating psychic suffering account for the investment of parents with ASD ? » from this question flows the following hypothesis: «The work of elaborating psychic suffering account for the parent’s investment through his or her ability to tolerate, process and negotiate intrapsychic anguish and interpersonal conflicts ». The achievement of this objective was made possible through the clinical method, the use of semi-structured interviews, and grating observation. Collected data from parents met at the Center Espoir in Yaoundé. Thematic content analysis and testing report findings that study subjects experienced trauma. Investment is implemented through the ability to tolerate, process, and negotiate intrapsychic anguish and interpersonal conflicts for a harmonious future. In this way, these participants' investment was implemented through the mobilization of certain defense mechanisms (denial, splitting, etc.), good mentalization, and protective factors (spirituality, financial resources).