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Exploring compatibilities between the Free Energy Principle and Heideggerian existential phenomenology as alternative dynamic conceptualizations of depression

Mathias Houe Andersen, Silja Katharina Arenfeldt

November 11, 2023 preprint DOI: 10.31234/osf.io/hyp87 (opens in new tab)

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Characteristics Theoretical or philosophical paper
Topics Depression Philosophy of mind
Keywords Conceptualization Epistemology Existentialism Relation database Phenomenology philosophy Affordance Cognitive psychology
Key points Argues that an interdisciplinary approach combining Heideggerian phenomenology and the Free Energy Principle provides a dynamic characterization of depression that is beneficial for understanding how depressed individuals are fundamentally connected to the world.

Abstract

This study concerns an interdisciplinary theoretical analysis of the underlying ways the depressed individual is related to the world. Specific aspects of this relation, namely time, mood and perception of affordances will be characterized. By understanding these relations from both an existential phenomenological Heideggerian approach and through the modern neuroscientific paradigm of the Free Energy Principle, we formulate a complementary conceptualization of the depressed person’s relation to the world. Furthermore, we argue that this interdisciplinary approach bears a synergic coupling, despite obvious epistemic and disciplinary differences. In essence The Free Energy Principle conceptualizes any human world relation as a dynamic process in a self-organizing system that attempts to minimize entropy from the surroundings by predicting the states of the world. To Heidegger, the human world relation constitutes Dasein as a being-in-the-world, where the world gets its meaning from Dasein's care. Dasein does this by projecting possibilities of the future based on its facticity. We argue that this interdisciplinary compatible conceptualization constitutes an epistemically useful alternative based on dynamic assumptions, unlike the conceptualization offered by DSM-5, We argue that these underlying assumptions are important to challenge, as recent research in psychedelic treatment of “treatment resistant” depressed patients provides interesting findings challenging our current view of depression. Because experiences of connectedness are the strongest predictor for positive clinical outcomes in these trials, we argue that a dynamic characterization of depression is beneficial. We argue that this dynamic characterization is beneficial to pursue, as it offers an interdisciplinary approach to understand how the depressed individual fundamentally is connected to the world.

Comparable studies

Other theoretical and historical papers on depression, most cited first.

Study Year Design Participants
Mindfulness-based cognitive therapy for depression 2006 Theoretical or philosophical paper
Psilocybin-assisted therapy of major depressive disorder using Acceptance and Commitment Therapy as a therapeutic frame 2020 Theoretical or philosophical paper
The Yale Manual for Psilocybin-Assisted Therapy of Depression (using Acceptance and Commitment Therapy as a Therapeutic Frame) 2020 Theoretical or philosophical paper
Neuroinflammation and neuroprogression in depression: Effects of alternative drug treatments 2022 Theoretical or philosophical paper
Improving cognitive functioning in major depressive disorder with psychedelics: A dimensional approach 2021 Theoretical or philosophical paper

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Depression Philosophy of mind