HYPOTHESIS AND THEORY article
Front. Psychiatry
Sec. Anxiety and Stress Disorders
This article is part of the Research TopicStress-induced Psychopathology: From Mechanisms to InterventionsView all 17 articles
Schismogenesis in Anxiety Spectrum Disorders: A Biopsychosocial Perspective
Provisionally accepted
- 1University of the Balearic Islands, Palma, Spain
- 2Medicine, University of the Balearic Islands, Palma, Spain
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Abstract: Anxiety spectrum disorders (ASDs) often have an unsatisfactory prognosis, suggesting the opportunity for complementary explanatory frameworks to advance their therapeutics. This text advocates for a framework rooted in cybernetics and complex systems theory, which views the mind, brain, and social networks as deeply interdependent systems. A characteristic feature of such systems is the operation of similar organizational principles and laws across different levels of analysis, a phenomenon termed isomorphism. Thus, the mind, brain, and social systems operate under isomorphic principles, requiring a critical balance between stability (homeostasis) and the capacity for change (homeodynamics) to successfully adapt to environmental perturbations. From this perspective, the central challenge under stress is to prevent excessive fragmentation and functional dissociation, a process termed schismogenesis in cybernetics. ASDs are, therefore, reconceptualized as biopsychosocial dissociations stemming from a schismogenic mechanism. This framework posits that mental health is contingent upon maintaining a dynamic equilibrium between connectedness and independence across social, mental, and neural levels. It also suggests that any intervention promoting reintegration can be therapeutic when dissociation occurs. While single-component psychosocial approaches may suffice for mild cases of ASDs, the ideal therapeutic plan for severe or refractory cases should be rapidly implemented, personalized, multicomponent and synchronous.
Keywords: Anxiety Disorders, Complexity, dissociation, models, biopsychosocial, systems thinking
Received: 16 Jul 2025; Accepted: 09 Dec 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Garcia-Toro and Gomez-Juanes. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Mauro Garcia-Toro
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