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- Title
Toward a Phenomenological Account of Embodied Subjectivity in Autism.
- Authors
Boldsen, Sofie
- Abstract
Sensorimotor research is currently challenging the dominant understanding of autism as a deficit in the cognitive ability to 'mindread'. This marks an emerging shift in autism research from a focus on the structure and processes of the mind to a focus on autistic behavior as grounded in the body. Contemporary researchers in sensorimotor differences in autism call for a reconciliation between the scientific understanding of autism and the first-person experience of autistic individuals. I argue that fulfilling this ambition requires a phenomenological understanding of the body as it presents itself in ordinary experience, namely as the subject of experience rather than a physical object. On this basis, I investigate how the phenomenology of Maurice Merleau-Ponty can be employed as a frame of understanding for bodily experience in autism. Through a phenomenological analysis of Tito Mukhopadhyay's autobiographical work, How can I talk if my lips don't move (2009), I illustrate the relevance and potential of phenomenological philosophy in autism research, arguing that this approach enables a deeper understanding of bodily and subjective experiences related to autism.
- Subjects
AUTISM research; PHENOMENOLOGICAL psychology; SENSORIMOTOR cortex; MUKHOPADHYAY, Tito; DEVELOPMENTAL disabilities research; SENSORY perception; PHILOSOPHY; SELF-perception
- Publication
Culture, Medicine & Psychiatry, 2018, Vol 42, Issue 4, p893
- ISSN
0165-005X
- Publication type
journal article
- DOI
10.1007/s11013-018-9590-y