A radical embodied perspective of autism: towards ethical, and inclusive views for cognitive diversities

Abstract

Autism Spectrum Disorders have been defined as a group of developmental conditions that affect the capacity to interact with the physical and social environment, among others. A core feature of autism is the presence of restricted and repetitive behaviors that vary in complexity, form, and frequency throughout life history. These core features have traditionally been defined as impairments that interfere with communication competence. From an embodied approach, however, these actions could be seen as characteristic ways of interacting with the world. In this sense, we take an enactive and embodied approach to cognition in which we conceive cognitive agents as sensorimotor systems whose perception-action occurs in terms of affordances. This framework provides an integrative view of autism considering affectivity, perception, action, exploration, and interaction within a complex and dynamic dimension. Following this, we propose different applications based on embodied, intercultural, and feminist epistemologies, to understand and participate with autistic and cognitively diverse populations. The change in theoretical and methodological paradigms within embodied cognitive science towards autism and other cognitive diversities and how they engage with the world can lead to more comprehensive, integrative, and bioethical approaches.

Interoceptive experiences and ecological care: an embodied approach within therapeutical realms

“…Legrand (2007) notes that the healthy body offers a kind of primary being-at-home, which turns into a not-being-at-home with one's embodiment during states of illness. We can examine how agents perceive the spectrum of bodily beingin-the-world, finding meaning and regulation in their spectrum of suffering and joy within the broader context of their lived experience, which is, in turn, shaped by the possibility of transformation throughout the trajectories of the embodied self and the community (Cadena-Alvear and Gastelum-Vargas, 2022).…”