Incorporation in autism spectrum condition

Phenomenological approaches to autism have predominantly examined it in terms of social challenges, above all as a diminished intercorporeality, i.e. the ability of bodies of two individuals to extend and form a mutual incorporation. Incorporation refers to the way in which the body integrates with other people (mutual incorporation) or with the world, with objects or tools (unidirectional incorporation) through perception and action, such that these become part of one’s own body schema. In this paper, we consider autism in relation to the concept of unidirectional and mutual incorporation. The hypothesis is that autistic individuals experience challenges with mutual incorporation, resulting in social difficulties, and that instead they tend to engage in unidirectional incorporation, where there is only one active pole. The latter manifests itself in special interests, in a preference for perceiving objects rather than individuals and in ritualized daily routines and stereotypical behavior. A description of autism that includes incorporation allows a more comprehensive understanding of the condition, encompassing a wider range of aspects than social interaction and lets us redress a merely deficit-oriented understanding of autism.