Nature heals: An informational entropy account of self-organization and change in field psychotherapy.

Summary

Psychotherapeutic change can be understood through biophysical models based on synergetics and the free energy principle. Introducing sensory surprise into the patient-therapist system encourages self-organization and new attractor states, disrupting entrenched patterns. The therapist fosters this by building epistemic trust and modulating attention to allow surprising emotions into shared awareness. Transient increases in free energy update generative models, expanding the phenomenal field. Disorganization at behavioral and physiological levels, marked by increased entropy and complexity, may predict therapeutic gains.

Study at a glance

Abstract

This paper reviews biophysical models of psychotherapeutic change based on synergetics and the free energy principle. These models suggest that introducing sensory surprise into the patient-therapist system can lead to self-organization and the formation of new attractor states, disrupting entrenched patterns of thoughts, emotions, and behaviours. We propose that the therapist can facilitate this process by cultivating epistemic trust and modulating embodied attention to allow surprising affective states to enter shared awareness. Transient increases in free energy enable the update of generative models, expanding the range of experiences available within the patient-therapist phenomenal field. We hypothesize that patterns of disorganization at behavioural and physiological levels, indexed by increased entropy, complexity, and lower determinism, are key markers and predictors of psychotherapeutic gains. Future research should investigate how the therapist's openness to novelty shapes therapeutic outcomes.

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