| Overview | 1. Introduction | 2. Diagnostic Fog | 3. Sensory Processing as Key | 4. Emergent Patterns | 5. Research & Therapy | 6. New Model | 7. Conclusion |
This paper is not a manifesto, nor a theory claiming absoluteness – but an offer for reconsidering our thinking. It suggests viewing autism not as a rigid diagnosis, but as an emergent phenomenon: a pattern that arises from the interaction of sensory perception, neurochemical modulation, individual conditioning, and environmental factors.
The term “autism” has helped many people better understand themselves or to be seen at all. But it has also confined many to rigid categories, standardized therapies, and created expectations. What is missing is a model that is both differentiated and comprehensible, one that targets causes rather than symptoms – and that takes people seriously in their perceptual logic.
We are not advocating for a new label, but for a new epistemic humility: the courage to say that we are dealing with a multi-layered system – not with a disorder that can be diagnostically “solved.”
Perhaps it is time to start from a different perspective:
Autistic behavior is not the result of a deficit – but a competent reaction to an overwhelming, poorly matched world. And this reaction deserves not “training,” but understanding, contextual adaptation, and dialogical support.
Research is invited not to create even more refined symptom lists, but to turn to the causal spaces: sensory processing, hormones, stress axes, developmental environments. And society is invited to stop thinking in categories of “normal” and “conspicuous” – but to ask: How many different ways of perceiving can a world sustain without losing people?
Then that’s good. Because the goal is not to have the final word, but to set thinking in motion. A model is not right or wrong – it is useful or not useful. And we believe: This model has the potential to explain more, connect more, and enable more.
We welcome criticism, additions, experiences, objections. Not because we want to be attacked – but because we want to engage in dialogue. Better understanding is not a goal – it is a process.
When we understand sensory processing as a central axis of human behavior, a subtle but far-reaching shift in perspective emerges.
Autism is not recognized because a person feels differently – but because their reactions to this world do not function smoothly. This also means: The diagnosis does not arise from the brain alone, but from the collision between inner world and environment. What we call a “disorder” is often just the visibility of a system that cannot find peace in a particular environment.
In this light, the boundary between “neurotypical” and “autistic” is remarkably soft. Many people show similar sensory peculiarities – but as long as they don’t disrupt, they are considered temperament or idiosyncrasy. The visible deviation begins where the system experiences stress – not before.
And if sensory processing is indeed so central, then many other phenomena could also lie on this axis – ADHD, high sensitivity, burnout, anxiety disorders. Not as part of the same spectrum, but as related resonance phenomena of an overstimulated system.
We are therefore not arguing for putting everything under one term – but for examining a common model: A model that understands sensory processing as the foundation from which behavior, adaptation, stress, and ultimately suffering emerge.
Perhaps this is the next step – out of the boxes, into the system analysis of being human.
This paper emerged from a dialogue between a systems-thinking engineer and an AI-based writing assistant. It is intended as a contribution to objectification and reorientation in dealing with neurodivergent behavior – open to criticism, additions, and further development.
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