The True Etiology and Treatments of Mental Disorders
Year: 2026
Type: preprint
Abstract: Psychosis lacks a confirmed fundamental etiology, and prevailing psychiatric frameworks mainly propose polygenic vulnerability, environmental risk factors and brain network anomalies, none of which have been verified as the root cause. This paper puts forward a novel psychogenic mechanism: severe and cumulative self-negation of thinking undermines confidence in the validity of internally generated cognitive directives, lowering their perceived value. When the value of these thinking-generated directives declines below that of innate physiological cravings, primitive psychological desires and the impulse to discharge repressed emotions, the human self-interested nature drives the release of such instinctive urges, escaping cognitive regulation. Progressive self-negation may lead the brain to regard its own intellectual faculty as inherently flawed, gradually withdrawing active deliberation and self-restraint and entering a sleep-like state with diminished conscious control. This produces a blank, disorganised mental state, facilitates the spontaneous expression of raw impulses and emotional outbursts, and accounts for the emergence of psychotic symptoms including hallucinations. On this basis, the core intervention and preventive strategy for this subtype of psychosis is the reconstruction of self-confidence by sustained positive affirmation, whereas excessive hospitalisation may reinforce cognitive self-devaluation and exacerbate symptoms. This logical-deduction-based theory offers an alternative pathogenic account and a non-pharmacological therapeutic direction for psychosis.
Author: Chen, Zhiguo
Language: English
Subfield: Psychiatry and Mental health
Field: Medicine
Domain: Health Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W7225772626
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