Hidden signs and wrong turns: Autism, language, and the field of intersubjectivity

Abstract Autism is typically defined through observable differences in social communication, reciprocity and behaviour, while the neurotypical position from which these differences are identified often remains implicit and theoretically underexamined. This article proposes that a clearer understanding of autism requires a corresponding account of what it means to be neurotypical. Drawing on developmental psychology, linguistics, psychoanalysis and social theory, the concept of the FOI is introduced: an implicit social field through which subjectivity is maintained primarily via meaning. Building on Saussure's notion of the arbitrariness of the sign, a distinction is made between symbolic representation in the ordinary sense and what is termed the symbolic‐Proper (symbolic‐P): the process through which symbolic constructions acquire the status of lived reality and become capable of organising identity, social participation and shared meaning. The FOI is proposed as the field within which symbolic‐P structures are maintained. Autism is then reconsidered as a potentially different positioning in relation to this field, rather than simply a deficit in social functioning. The article explores how such a perspective may illuminate differences in communication, identity, social participation and psychotherapeutic engagement, while offering a novel framework for understanding neurotypicality itself.