Enactive Mind Autism: Autopoietic enactivism as a practical framework for autism healthcare.
Johannes Cornelis Van Huizen, Jan-Pieter Teunisse, Antje Orgassa, Wouter Staal, Derek Strijbos
Psychopathology September 21, 2026 DOI: 10.1159/psp/aelag010 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Theoretical or philosophical paper Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Key points | Argues that autism healthcare should move beyond individual biological and behavioral factors to an autopoietic-enactive approach that treats the environment as enabling or constitutive of support needs. Proposes the Enactive Mind Autism (EMA) framework, with five dimensions (ecological, historical, tangible-embodied, intersubjective, socio-cultural), and calls for clinical research and practice to take a phenomenological, pragmatic, and material turn via design research. |
Abstract
Autism healthcare has traditionally focused on individual biological and behavioral factors. In recent decades, there has been growing recognition that the outside world also plays an enabling if not constitutive role in the development of support needs. This broader view complicates healthcare delivery as the traditional person-centered focus 'diffuses' into the environment. An integrative approach, rooted in autopoietic enactivism, can provide guidance here - aimed at establishing stable, authentic, and health-promoting patterns of engagement between an autistic individual and their surroundings. Although the application of autopoietic enactivism has gained popularity among philosophers of psychiatry, its clinical consolidation remains limited. In addressing this gap, this paper presents a preliminary practical framework called Enactive Mind Autism (EMA). EMA consists of five dimensions to explore the relevance and implications of an autopoietic-enactive approach in autism healthcare: aspects of (1) ecological, (2) historical, (3) tangible-embodied, (4) intersubjective, and (5) socio-cultural life. To conclude, this paper draws a connection with design research to imagine new methodological directions for clinical research and practice, which, from an autopoietic-enactive perspective, is encouraged to take a phenomenological, pragmatic, and material turn.