A Dynamic Model Of Autism Beyond Categorical Classification

Traditional diagnostic frameworks conceptualize autism through categorical and deficit-based models, often reducing complex neurocognitive diversity to binary classifications. In this paper, we propose the HTSW (Harmonic Theory of Self and World) framework, a dynamic and relational model that reframes autism not as an intrinsic disorder, but as a specific configuration of a cognitive-sensory system interacting with its environment. By introducing a formal multidimensional representation of individual systems and environmental parameters, along with a "fit function," the HTSW model redefines functional difficulties and communication barriers as outcomes of systemic mismatch rather than individual pathology. This relational perspective bridges biological, functional, and environmental levels of description, offering testable predictions and opening new directions for non-categorical, context-sensitive approaches in cognitive science and autism research.