The visible and the invisible in Autistic Spectrum Disorder

an experience report in the light of Merleau-Ponty's Phenomenological Psychology.

Abstract

The scientific productions that seek to understand the autism spectrum disorder itself are countless, but publications dedicated to investigating the feelings of people affected by the disorder are still insufficient. This article presents a comprehensive analysis of the experience report of a person diagnosed with Autistic Spectrum Disorder (ASD) from the perspective of Merleau-Ponty's Phenomenological Psychology. The report began in childhood and the difficulties not understood when revealing its corporeity, school development and psychomotricity difficulties, passing through the search for understanding one's own spirituality, artistic sense and implicit interactions with others, through the understanding of intercorporeality in relationships, in love life, in the understanding of gender and sexuality, and culminating with the sense of the world experienced from the account of their academic and professional life, their perception of body structure by signs, symptoms, difficulties and comorbidities and the influence of the cultural world in caring for people with ASD. It is concluded, from the report of the person with ASD, which are the difficulties that are effectively linked to the disability in the unveiling of the biography (visible) and which difficulties are related to other nuances of life as a person with a disability (invisible)