ICLO-NLSSpace2Be welcomes Iván Ruiz as a guest speaker at this Study Day on "Not-All-Autism".

Saturday 31st October 2026

10.30 am to 4 pm

In Person - Entry & Lunch €40/€20 (Students)

NOT-ALL-AUTISM

Since Kanner’s 1943 identification of ‘aloneness’ and ‘sameness’ as the primary indicators of autism, the field has changed significantly from its origins in understanding what was then considered a rare condition.

Recent figures from the Department of Education reveal that the “Percentage of children diagnosed with autism rises threefold in less than a decade” 1 . Reported by Carl O’Brien in The Irish Times, these updated figures show that “the department has moved from using an estimated autism prevalence rate of 1.5-1.6 per cent among schoolchildren several years ago to 5 per cent.” 2 Some theorise that the rise in incidence is due to improved diagnostic tools and broader clinical criteria. The spectrum has become extremely wide, and services across both the public and private sectors have struggled to respond to this increased prevalence and to the needs of a more diverse population.

Space2be, an institution working with autistic children, with or without formal diagnosis, is oriented by plural practice, a modality of clinical work following the teachings of Jacques Lacan. It is a practice that provides interventions tailored to each person with absolute respect for their singularity.

The title of this event, “Not-all-autism”, opens up the possibility of approaching these challenges from various angles:

● Services and support geared to each person beyond their diagnosis.

● Sameness and aloneness as contemporary modes of jouissance, not only for those with a diagnosis of autism.

● The recognition that there is a condition, but also a family, a style, a cultural context: the singular versus the universal.

● What one treats in the clinic is their suffering, not their autism.

The day is organised into two-hour morning and afternoon sessions.

Guest speaker psychoanalyst, Iván Ruiz, is a member of the ELP and the World Association of Psychoanalysis; he will speak to the primacy of analytic discourse at the heart of applied psychoanalysis.

Cecilia Saviotti, Founder and Therapeutic Director of Space2be, will open the event with an introduction. This will be followed by a brief contribution from the person who supported Space2be in securing state funding. Space2be will then present a film featuring parents speaking about their experiences of the community-based project. Following the break, the programme will continue with a series of four clinical vignettes presented by Space2be practitioners, accompanied by comments and questions from members of ICLO-NLS.

We invite you to interrogate these matters from the epistemic to the clinic, and back again.

Description supplied by the event organiser.