Egostasis: A First-Principles Account of the Neurocomputational Basis of Suffering
Abstract
<p>This paper introduces the concept of egostasis (self-based goal-directed persistence behaviour) and proposes a novel neurophenomenological theory of the experience of suffering, grounded in the framework of active inference. We argue that psychological suffering is a transmodal, aversive state arising from prediction errors being attributed to a self-model. Chronic suffering is proposed to arise from temporally and counterfactually deep action policies that prevent the resolution of interoceptive stress signalling. While homeostasis and allostasis resolve stressors through immediate physiological and behavioural adjustments, egostasis attempts to achieve goals over extended temporal horizons. We hypothesise that chronic suffering arises when this mode becomes entrenched via canalisation, perpetuating a dynamic in which temporally deep egostatic policies (mediated by the Default Mode and Central Executive Networks) consistently override temporally shallow allostatic policies. This results in a “selfing” feedback loop: maintained interoceptive stress signals recruit the self-model (egostasis) which perpetuates the very stress-signalling the system seeks to resolve. The egostasis model provides a transdiagnostic framework for understanding psychiatric disorders, including depression, anxiety, PTSD, and addiction, as facets of a systems-level failure in psychological flexibility that perpetuates the prediction errors produced under egostasis. By identifying the recruitment of the self-model as the core mechanism of chronic suffering, this theory elucidates the therapeutic efficacy of interventions that disrupt “selfing” dynamics, such as mindfulness meditation and psychedelic-induced “ego-dissolution”, offering a path toward the relief of suffering by restoring adaptive allostasis.</p>
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