Fernand Deligny: Acting in stead of Thinking

Places of the mind are places of meaning, which are often understood as places of speech. What then about autistic children, who are mute—those with whom Fernand Deligny has lived and thought? Seeking to be involved with them in a network, Deligny promotes intransitive acting; that is, he promotes a form of acting that goes against doing and the intention of doing, which are the matter of the conscious and willing mind. With autistic children, we learn that acting is more archaic than thinking – acting takes the place of thinking, and takes place where the mind would have lied. However, there is also an acting psychical nature where the mind lies, an automatism of the mind that acts as an automatic guiding device, one which keeps track and frames its own place, in relation to others.