Abstract
The free energy principle (FEP) is a new paradigm that has gain widespread interest in the neuroscience community. Although its principal architect, Karl Friston, is a psychiatrist, it has thus far had little impact within psychiatry. This article introduces readers to the FEP, points out its consilience with Freud's neuroscientific ideas and with psychodynamic practice, and suggests ways in which the FEP can help explain the mechanisms of action of the psychotherapies.
Highlights
Today’s psychiatrists are pragmatists, on the look-out for what ‘works’ and sceptical about the grand theories that held sway in the previous century
The purpose of this article is twofold: first, to introduce readers to an overarching model of brain function associated with the mathematical psychiatrist Karl Friston, the free energy principle (FEP), which has been influential in neuroscience generally, but far has caused relatively little stir within psychiatry or clinical psychology
If rehabilitation of the psychoanalytic method in the light of the FEP comes as a pleasant surprise, this is consistent with its principles
Summary
Summary The free energy principle (FEP) is a new paradigm that has gain widespread interest in the neuroscience community. The purpose of this article is twofold: first, to introduce readers to an overarching model of brain function associated with the mathematical psychiatrist Karl Friston, the free energy principle (FEP), which has been influential in neuroscience generally, but far has caused relatively little stir within psychiatry or clinical psychology. Friston had the insight and mathematical sophistication to see that the negentropic homeostatic principle applies not just to the organism as a whole but to the brain itself.[3,4] The brain’s job is to counteract entropy and to maintain internal stability on behalf of the organism whose processes and behaviour it controls and directs; this applies, reflexively, to itself. The brain, ‘top-down’, uses Bayesian probabilities to clarify ‘bottom-up’ input, extero- and interocaptive:8 ‘My stomach is complaining, but it’s not surprising – I overdid it on the pudding, so it’s probably not cancer’; ‘I know that tune, I’ve heard it so many times – yes it’s the Beatles’ Yellow Submarine’; ‘Is that a stick or a snake? Come on, no adders in city centres, probably safe to pick it up’
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