Psychology

Prediction, Control, and the Regulating Mind

A 10-part series joining control theory to predictive processing — what an emotion actually is, what it changes in the therapy room, and how to prove the whole model wrong.

10 parts, in order

Part 1What an Emotion Actually IsEmotions as error signals in a feedback loop, why happiness is not an emotion at all, and the sensor-sized gap the control account leaves open.Aug 17, 2026Part 2Why Your Brain Guesses at the WorldPerception as inference: the blind spot, the dress, prediction error, precision weighting, and Plato's cave arriving twenty-four centuries early.Aug 17, 2026Part 3What You Predict Is What You DefendThe original claim. Join control theory to predictive processing and the estimate becomes the set point, which gives two gains that come apart cleanly.Aug 17, 2026Part 4What This Changes in the Therapy RoomThe CBT model mapped onto a control loop: why a wrong core belief survives contact with reality, and four questions that sort the repair.Aug 17, 2026Part 5The Hard Case: Autism and StimmingStimming as a limit cycle rather than soothing, the stability-versus-overload argument, and an honest audit of how thin the supporting evidence actually is.Aug 17, 2026Part 6The Loop That Won't SettlePart 6 of Prediction, Control, and the Regulating Mind. Rumination, worry and compulsion as one fault, and depression as three faults under one diagnosis.Aug 25, 2026Part 7How to Prove This WrongFour results the model forbids, stated in advance, plus a precise account of what the evidence supports today and what remains untested.Aug 17, 2026Part 8Addendum: Amusement, Awe, and CuriosityAmusement, awe and curiosity don't behave like error signals. Why these three feelings belong to the estimator half of the regulating mind.Aug 23, 2026Part 9Addendum: Self-Injury as a Regulatory BehaviorFor clinicians: what the function research shows about non-suicidal self-injury, what the predictive account adds, and what is still untested.Aug 25, 2026Part 10Addendum: Anorexia and BulimiaFor clinicians: anorexia and bulimia through the regulating-mind model, why restriction calms, the hunger signal, and what the evidence costs.Sep 2, 2026

← Psychology  ·  All articles