Front Psychol
August 3, 2022
Enara García, Iñigo R. Arandia
18 citations
The enactive approach, a branch of 4-E cognitive theories, offers an integrative framework for studying mental disorders by encompassing organic, sensorimotor, and intersubjective dimensions of embodiment. Drawing on Gilbert Simondon's philosophy of individuation, the article provides conceptual tools to understand the dynamic, interactive nature of human bodies in mental disorders. It analyzes five aspects of sense-making—temporality, adaptivity, multiplicity of normativities, the role of tension, and participatory character. The authors suggest that mental disorders and symptoms involve difficulties in transforming tensions and performing individuation processes, reducing the field of potentialities for self-individuation and sense-making.
Phenomenology and the Cognitive Sciences
September 8, 2023
Enara García
9 citations
Affectivity is central to mental disorders because sense-making is inherently affective. Drawing on Husserl's genetic method and Simondonian philosophy, sense-making is described as the progressive concretization of self-world structures that support conscious intentionality. Affectivity anticipates partial self-world coherence in this process. Different affective experiences—existential feelings, atmospheres, moods, emotions—play distinct roles. This framework reinterprets schizophrenia, depression, and anxiety spectrum disorders as disorders of affectivity, contributing to a phenomenologically informed enactive account of mental disorders.
Outonomy: Fleshing out the Concept of Autonomy Beyond the Individual
January 1, 2026
Enara García
Mental disorders are not simply brain disorders but emerge from developmental sensorimotor trajectories shaped by embodied interactions and social contexts. From an enactive perspective, cognition is processual and relational, meaning that mental disorders arise from the dynamic interplay between an individual's autonomy and their social environment. This view emphasizes that understanding mental disorders requires considering how a person's embodied experiences and social relationships shape their development over time.