Is psychosis caused by defective dissociation? An Artificial Life model for schizophrenia

Abstract: Both neurobiological and environmental factors are known to play a role in the origin of schizophrenia, but no model has been proposed that accounts for both. This work presents a functional model of schizophrenia that merges psychodynamic elements with ingredients borrowed from the theory of psychological traumas, and evidences the interplay of traumatic experiences and defective mental functions in the pathogenesis of the disorder. Our model foresees that dissociation is a standard tool used by the mind to protect itself from emotional pain. In case of repeated traumas, the mind learns to adopt selective forms of dissociation to avoid pain without losing touch with external reality. We conjecture that this process is defective in schizophrenia, where dissociation is either too weak, giving rise to positive symptoms, or too strong, causing negative symptoms.