In the present text, a critical analysis of the position of Francisco Varela is made, with respect to diverse texts of his theoretical development. The main argument affirms that the autopoiesis stays (in an epistemologic level) throughout his work, generating a great amount of conceptual contradictions and superpositions of logical levels. The unsuitability of the combined use of the theory of complex systems with the autopoietic approach and the paradigm of emergent identity stands out in this sense, on the basis of the pseudoexplanations that produces. It leads to a reorientation of the amplitude and reaches of the paradigm of emergent identity and the enaction to the light of critical analysis.