Trauma is the root of psychopathology
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Psychopathologies in general follow a (reductive) developmental process similar to the following:
- A traumatic event is experienced
- Gradual (or rapid) entrenchment of pathological thoughts/beliefs
- Rigidity and inflexibility to change of beliefs, possibly coupled with recursive or self-referential logic that can further entrench the belief
- Pathological beliefs are ascribed excessive precision (hierarchical predictive coding, Free energy principle)
Claimed by Carhart-Harris et al. (Carhart-Harris2019) to be consistent with the theory of mental suffering (Kessler2016) and Bayesian perspective on delusional belief formation in psychosis (Adams2018, Sterzer2018).
The creation of aberrant/pathological beliefs are self-protective, beginning from an attempt to mitigate averseness of felt uncertainty or ambiguity brought on by psychological injury/trauma.
- Aberrant belief formation is consistent with uncertainty-resolving imperatives of the Free energy principle
Entrenched beliefs must be relaxed in some way before they can be revised
Related & References
Based on my own thinking, but consistent with Carhart-Harris2019