Original scientific paper
https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.19439248
Mental Disorders as a Disorder of Embodied Engagement: An Enactivist and Phenomenological Approach to Psychopathology
Toma Gruica
orcid.org/0000-0003-0547-5825
; "Dr. Franjo Tuđman" University of Defence and Security
*
* Corresponding author.
Abstract
This paper develops a framework for understanding mental disorders through the integration of enactivist cognitive science, Heideggerian phenomenology and the theory of embodied cognition. It is argued that mental disorders do not arise from categorical differences in brain function, but from disturbances in the autopoietic cycles of cognitive engagement with the world. Drawing on Heidegger's concepts of the modes of engagement zuhandenheit (readiness-to-hand) and vorhandenheit (presence-at-hand), as well as on Varela's enactivism and Manfred Eigen's theory of error replication in autopoietic systems, it is proposed that pathology arises when the normal cycle of breakdown and reintegration becomes rigid, preventing the individual from responding to what Heidegger calls the "call" (der Ruf). This framework explains why identical experiences may be traumatic for some individuals but not for others, situates the origin of certain mental disorders in conditions of social alienation, and offers a naturalistic explanation of psychopathology that avoids dualistic assumptions about mind and world.
Keywords
Hrčak ID:
348959
URI
Publication date:
1.6.2026.
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