Consciousness rising: A phenomenological consideration of autism and OCD

This project examines the roles that medical imaging technologies and family stories play in understanding two potentially hereditary disorders, autism and obsessive-compulsive disorder, in order to argue for a more comprehensive approach to understanding difference. To that end, I use phenomenology as a philosophical practice for the ways in which it bridges various disciplines and discourses and for its emphasis on the body as an organizing principle. For the purposes of this project, I reform phenomenological practice, focusing my study on human neurophysiology. In particular, I argue for “directed intentionality” as a bodily way of knowing that results in an embodied consciousness.; Drawing on this directed intentionality and the bodies it reveals to us as unique and significant (in their differences, in their similarities), I expand notions of consciousness to include “machine” consciousness, as a way of critiquing current conceptualizations of human consciousness. This allows me to explore multiple connections among the body, consciousness, and action, with particular attention paid to instances in which action seems to deviate from expectations (when the body seems to have a “mind” of its own). Ultimately, I propose this reformed phenomenology as a new approach to understanding difference, not as a divisive element that undermines our sympathetic faculties, but rather as an integral feature of our existence.