Subjectivity, Embodiment and Spatialization in Autistic Spectrum Disorder

Abstract

The present paper is a general reflection upon

autistic embodiment and the way an altered

body schema might determine a completely

different kind of subjectivity. It is a general

lack of contemporary research in the field of

Autistic Spectrum Disorder (ASD) to consider

cognitive and sensomotoric disorders merely

isolated and in terms of local dysfunctions, as

if they would pertain to a general

psychological structure that remains unaltered.

For phenomenology, on the contrary, there is

no such psychological structure disconnected

from the concrete experience in which it is

revealed. Fundamental disturbances in the

sphere of the live body must necessarily affect

the structure of subjectivity itself. The purpose

of this paper is to stress a first outline of such a

positive understanding of autism, namely

regarding autistic body- and world-perception.