Conclusions on Determinants of Behavior and Implications for Psychiatry, Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy

Abstract

A look at the S-O-R-model facilitates the analysis of determinants of behavior (level of analysis, cause–effect relationships in the central nervous system). Mental processes, which link stimuli to behavior, are core activities of humans. Therefore, these concepts cannot be reduced to concepts of neuroscience (e.g., that the brain recognizes and thinks). On the other hand, the organization of the nervous system on three levels of the somato-motor system and on three levels of the viscero-motor system is similar to the three components of the S-O-R-model, that is, on each level sensory neurons, interneurons, and motor neurons interact. An example is the thermoregulation, which is inborn (controlled by the hypothalamus) and learned (controlled by self-regulation). More complex questions are whether the thinking is unconscious and whether the will is free. In the other section, a new brain-based framework for diagnosis, classification, and psychotherapy of mental disorders is proposed. This work includes the definition of mental disorders as discrepancies between actual and desired mental states and the substitution of the psychoses by a cortical and affective arousal disorder.