title: Maladaptation diseases as disorders of goal state integration and intraorganismal individuation
creator: Lissek, Thomas
subject: ddc-610
subject: 610 Medical sciences Medicine
description: The present work introduces the hypothesis that various human maladaptation diseases including addiction, cancer, autoimmunity, fibrosis, depression, chronic pain and post-traumatic stress disorder share a universal functional pattern in that they are all caused by defects in goal state integration of physiological subsystems into whole-organism goal states and by the resulting emergence of new levels of individuality within the organism. In this framework, a general mechanism in ontogenetic maladaptation is the intraorganismal individuation of subsystems via physiological adaptation mechanisms, which results in these systems becoming uncoupled from the rest of the organism and pursuing a hyperoptimization of their own goals at the cost of whole organism health. A central mechanism for mediating continued dysfunction in these disorders is the formation and maintenance of maladaptive memories. A potential universal therapeutic principle for maladaptation disorders is to provide physiological integration pressure to force subsystems to integrate back into the functional organization of the whole organism.
date: 2025
type: Preprint
type: info:eu-repo/semantics/preprint
type: NonPeerReviewed
format: application/pdf
identifier: https://archiv.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/volltextserver/36145/7/Lissek_Maladaptation_disorders_2025.pdf
identifier: DOI:10.11588/heidok.00036145
identifier: urn:nbn:de:bsz:16-heidok-361453
identifier:   Lissek, Thomas  (2025) Maladaptation diseases as disorders of goal state integration and intraorganismal individuation.  [Preprint]     
relation: https://archiv.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/volltextserver/36145/
rights: info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess
rights: Please see front page of the work (Sorry, Dublin Core plugin does not recognise license id)
language: eng