Egostasis: A First-Principles Account of the Neurocomputational Basis of Suffering
James Cooke
April 30, 2026 preprint DOI: 10.31234/osf.io/2cr9y_v1 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Theoretical or philosophical paper |
|---|---|
| Intervention | Mindfulness meditation |
| Topics | Default mode network Meditation |
| Keywords | Allostasis Flexibility engineering Stressor Action physics Psychological intervention Allostatic load Psychological theory Cognitive psychology Psychotherapist Cognitive science Mechanism biology Persistence discontinuity Expectancy theory |
| Key points | Proposes that chronic suffering arises from a 'selfing' feedback loop in which temporally deep egostatic policies perpetuate interoceptive stress signalling, and that disrupting this dynamic via mindfulness or psychedelic-induced ego-dissolution may restore adaptive allostasis. |
Abstract
This paper introduces the concept of egostasis (self-based goal-directed persistence behaviour) and proposes a novel neurophenomenological theory of the experience of suffering, grounded in the framework of active inference. We argue that psychological suffering is a transmodal, aversive state arising from prediction errors being attributed to a self-model. Chronic suffering is proposed to arise from temporally and counterfactually deep action policies that prevent the resolution of interoceptive stress signalling. While homeostasis and allostasis resolve stressors through immediate physiological and behavioural adjustments, egostasis attempts to achieve goals over extended temporal horizons. We hypothesise that chronic suffering arises when this mode becomes entrenched via canalisation, perpetuating a dynamic in which temporally deep egostatic policies (mediated by the Default Mode and Central Executive Networks) consistently override temporally shallow allostatic policies. This results in a “selfing” feedback loop: maintained interoceptive stress signals recruit the self-model (egostasis) which perpetuates the very stress-signalling the system seeks to resolve. The egostasis model provides a transdiagnostic framework for understanding psychiatric disorders, including depression, anxiety, PTSD, and addiction, as facets of a systems-level failure in psychological flexibility that perpetuates the prediction errors produced under egostasis. By identifying the recruitment of the self-model as the core mechanism of chronic suffering, this theory elucidates the therapeutic efficacy of interventions that disrupt “selfing” dynamics, such as mindfulness meditation and psychedelic-induced “ego-dissolution”, offering a path toward the relief of suffering by restoring adaptive allostasis.
Comparable studies
Other theoretical and historical papers on default mode network, most cited first.
| Study | Year | Design | Participants |
|---|---|---|---|
| The entropic brain: a theory of conscious states informed by neuroimaging research with psychedelic drugs | 2014 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| The default mode network in cognition: a topographical perspective | 2021 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| The default mode network: where the idiosyncratic self meets the shared social world | 2021 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| The default-mode, ego-functions and free-energy: a neurobiological account of Freudian ideas | 2010 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| Cooperation between the default mode network and the frontal–parietal network in the production of an internal train of thought | 2011 | Theoretical or philosophical paper |