Mental Metabolism: A Five-Phase Model of Processing Affectively Charged Arousal
Roman Kuznetsov
Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research) April 29, 2026 preprint DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.19897168 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Theoretical or philosophical paper |
|---|---|
| Key points | Proposes a five-phase model of "mental metabolism" (admission, holding, binding, resolution, descent/return) linking the free-energy principle, global workspace theory, and Gestalt therapy phenomenology. Argues that psychic suffering arises not from deficit but from the system's overflow with unmetabolized arousal, and that cycle interruptions correspond to disturbances of precision-weighting in the generative hierarchy. Presents no empirical data, only operationalizable hypotheses for later testing. |
Abstract
Abstract This paper proposes a theoretical model of mental metabolism as a sequence of five phases of processing affectively charged arousal: admission, holding, binding, resolution, and descent/return. The model is built on three levels of description: computational (the free-energy principle; Friston, 2010), neurocognitive (global workspace theory; Baars, 1988), and phenomenological–clinical (the clinical phenomenology of Gestalt therapy; Perls, Hefferline, & Goodman, 1951; Goodman's functions of self). This three-level architecture operationalizes every interruption of the cycle as a specific disturbance of precision-weighting at the corresponding level of the generative hierarchy, making the model's hypotheses verifiable through neuroimaging and physiological markers. Central thesis: psychic suffering arises not from deficit but from the system's overflow with unmetabolized arousal. The irreversibility of a completed cycle is grounded through the update of the generative model rather than postulated phenomenologically. The paper provides no empirical data but formulates operationalizable hypotheses for subsequent testing. The work develops the construct of mental metabolism introduced in the theoretical core of the Process-Contact Theory of the Psyche (Kuznetsov, 2026a) and is concordant with its biological foundations (Kuznetsov, 2026b). Claims are marked by a four-level system: ontological premise, theoretical interpretation (◇), empirical anchor (✓), methodological limitation (⚠). Keywords: mental metabolism; affect regulation; unfinished action; Zeigarnik effect; retroflection; neurovisceral integration; multiple coding; precision-weighting; global workspace; predictive processing; functions of self; generative model; process-contact theory of the psyche.