Book Presentation 

Signatures: Working with Autism 

(Seahorse Imprint, 2026) 

Isabelle Orrado and Jean-Michel Vives 

Translated by Martin Winn

Saturday, October 31, 2026 • 10:00 AM – 12:30 PM 

Isabelle Orrado and Jean-Michel Vives propose an alternative to the prevailing treatments for autistic children. Rather than trying to suppress or modify the ”oddities” that autistic persons display, they argue that these peculiarities should be seen not as problems to be suppressed, but as attempts at relating to a world that is otherwise invasive and threatening.

In working with autistic differences, the authors show that it is possible to follow these subjects as they devise a way to register their presence in the world by establishing a signature: a way that also allows them to experience the world and others as less menacing and intolerable.

Location: In-person in NYC only. 

Fee: Attendance is free and open to the public. Registration details to follow. 

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Isabelle Orrado practices psychoanalysis in Nice, France. A doctor of psychology, she teaches at Université Côte d’Azur. She has treated young autistic subjects in a children’s hospital and is co-author with Jean-Michel Vives of Autisme et médiation: Bricoler une solution pour chacun. She is a member of the École de la Cause freudienne and of AMP (Association Mondiale de Psychanalyse).

Jean-Michel Vives is a professor of clinical psychopathology at Université Nice, Sophia Antipolis and practices psychoanalysis in Toulon, France. He is the author of many essays, on the invocatory drives, autism, music therapy, and clinical approaches to psychosis, and his books include La voix sur le divan and La médiation par le theatre: Freud et Dionysos sur la scène thérapeutique. He has also directed several theatre and opera performances.