The theory of two sensoriums and the problem of autism

The article analyzes the problem of autism. The author considers this problem in the horizon of searching for answers to questions about what a human is, what consciousness is and what intelligence is. The term “autism” comes from the Greek word autos, which means “self”. This term was introduced into scientific use by the Swiss psychiatrist E. Bleiler in 1911. He also coined the word “schizophrenia”. Describing patients suffering from schizophrenia, Bleiler noted their state of escape from reality and withdrawal into themselves, into their dreams. In 1943, Kanner gave the first description of childhood autism. In 1944, the Austrian psychiatrist Asperger described the syndrome of “autistic psychopathy”. Asperger's syndrome is a special form of autism with a high level of intelligence. Autistic people of this level can work like a computer. Their thought is not controlled by emotion. They do not understand what a rule is and what it means to be right. There are 1,000 times more geniuses among autistic people than among ordinary people. For psychologists, autism is limited to deviation from the norm, illness, dementia. For philosophers in autism, it is important to reject external causation and recognize the fundamental status of randomness. J. Kristeva tried to analyze the phenomenon of autism. She developed the theory of an autistic person as a “person with an unspoken meaning”. The essence of this theory is a revision of Kant's idea of productive imagination a priori. Kristeva, following Lacan, thinks of the imaginary as the boundary between the real and the symbolic. An autistic person, in her opinion, crosses this border, but cannot cross the border between the imaginary and the language, that is, the symbolic one. Kristeva forgets that children hallucinate before speaking. The imaginary is the boundary of language, not the other way around. Investigating the phenomenon of autism, the author comes to the conclusion that there are two human sensoriums, two sets of feelings. One sensorium exists for the external life, the other sensoiium exists for the internal life of a person. The first sensorium includes five ordinary senses. The second includes a sense of oneself, a sense of belonging to the whole, a sense of time, a sense of reality, a productive capacity of imagination and faith. Autistic people have only one sensorium. The problem is to help them form the sensorium of their attitude towards themselves. In this case, their intelligence will be embedded in consciousness. Thus, autistic people will receive navigators for their inner lives.

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