A Global Workspace perspective on mental disorders
Theoretical Biology and Medical Modelling December 1, 2005 Rodrick Wallace
Human consciousness may suffer progressive, staged dysfunctions analogous to cancer, caused by damaging external information that writes itself onto mind and body, especially during critical developmental periods. This can lead to failures in large-scale brain connectivity or damage the ability of goal contexts to contain conscious dynamics. The primary intervention is population-level limitation of exposure to triggering factors—a matter of social justice determined by cultural trajectory, group power relations, and economic structure. Individual intervention may only trigger or extend remission by reestablishing evolved control strategies, which remain largely unexplored.