Abstract
We offer an account of mental health and well-being using the predictive processing framework (PPF). According to this framework, the difference between mental health and psychopathology can be located in the goodness of the predictive model as a regulator of action. What is crucial for avoiding the rigid patterns of thinking, feeling and acting associated with psychopathology is the regulation of action based on the valence of affective states. In PPF, valence is modelled as error dynamics—the change in prediction errors over time . Our aim in this paper is to show how error dynamics can account for both momentary happiness and longer term well-being. What will emerge is a new neurocomputational framework for making sense of human flourishing.
Highlights
The predictive processing framework ( “Predictive Processing Framework (PPF)”) has recently been proposed as a unifying theory of the embodied brain and its cognitive functions (Friston 2010; Hohwy 2013; Clark 2013, 2016)
We offer an account of mental health and well-being using the Predictive Processing Framework (PPF)
We expand on the claim made above, in part based on this literature in computational psychiatry, that the difference between mental health and psychopathology can be located in the goodness of the generative model as the regulator of the agent’s behaviour
Summary
The predictive processing framework ( “PPF”) has recently been proposed as a unifying theory of the embodied brain and its cognitive functions (Friston 2010; Hohwy 2013; Clark 2013, 2016). We take as our starting point the proposal that to be mentally healthy an organism must be a good predictor of the hidden causes (environmental and bodily) of its sensory states Such an organism will tend to behave in ways that maintain homeostasis at each moment in time. Better or worse than expected this is registered in the body as positively or negatively valenced affect Agents that use these affective states to regulate their behaviour will be driven to continuously make progress in error reduction. This will require them to sometimes disrupt their own habits of thinking and acting in ways that temporarily lead to increases in error and uncertainty but that in the long-run allow them to make progress in learning That is, they will sometimes perform actions that temporarily lead to an increase in uncertainty if doing so will help them to do better at reducing error in the long-run. We will argue that metastable attunement is conducive to well-being because it allows an agent to remain in touch with and integrate their various cares and concerns over a lifetime
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
