Temporal Depth in a Coherent Self and in Depersonalization: Theoretical Model

Alexey Tolchinsky^1*Michael Levin^2,3Chris Fields²Lancelot Da Costa^4,5Rachael Murphy⁶Daniel Friedman⁷David Pincus^8,9

• ¹George Washington University, Washington, D.C., United States
• ²Allen Discovery Center, Tufts University, Medford, Massachusetts, United States
• ³Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering, Harvard University, Boston, Massachusetts, United States
• ⁴VERSES AI Research Lab, Los Angeles, USA, Los Angeles, United States
• ⁵Montreal University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada
• ⁶Department of Psychiatry at Lehigh Valley Health Network in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, USA, Bethlehem, PA, United States
• ⁷Active Inference Institute, Davis, CA, United States
• ⁸University Hospitals of Cleveland, Cleveland, Ohio, United States
• ⁹Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio, United States

Multiple theoretical models of dissociative experiences have been formulated over the last century. These theories are clinically useful; however, it remains unclear if common factors exist in various pathways leading to an onset of dissociations. In this paper we provide a framework for building an integrated, dynamical model of dissociative experiences. This framework combines a first-principles-based perspective with nonlinear dynamical systems, clinical, and neurobiological perspectives. We propose that a substantial change in the parameter we call "temporal depth" can be a common factor in dissociative episodes of any etiology, moreover, we consider such a change to have causal power. In the follow-up series of papers, we will provide empirical data supporting the collapse of temporal depth in various kinds of dissociative experiences, a computer simulation that would test this model's computational components, and preliminary ideas for therapeutic applications.