To provide the bridge between what Prather has introduced and what I have presented, I wish to provide a summary of my own study of anticipation, and my introduction of a term, Polystasis, that is built on the fundamental process of psychological anticipation.
The Psychology of Anticipation and the Process of Polystasis
It all begins with the remarkable work done by Peter Sterling (2020) who challenges the model of homeostasis and introduces an alternative model called Allostasis. It is quite a challenge that Sterling offers, for Homeostasis has been the prominent perspective regarding dynamics operating in any system. Supposedly, we live in a world with a strong tendency for things to move back to some preferred state after being thrown out of kilter by some external event. Our blood pressure increases as we are determined to outrun the lion—be this lion real or imagined (Sapolsky, 2004). Our blood pressure returns to its normal level after we have eluded the lion. The thermostat in our living room is set to return the temperature of this room to 70 degrees after it drops by several degrees when we open the window for several moments on a chilly winter day. After our master craftsman returns from sick leave, we will return to the regular rate at which our high-priced chairs are produced.
Homeostasis and Allostasis
All well and good. However, we are finding that the world doesn’t work this way. We live in a world of allostasis rather than homeostasis. Introduced by Peter Sterling (2020) about the physiological regulation of our body, Allostasis refers to an organism’s capacity to anticipate upcoming environmental changes and demands. This anticipation leads to adjustment of the body’s energy use based on these changes and these demands. Allostasis shifts one’s attention away from homeostatic maintaining of a rigid internal set-point to the brain’s ability and role in interpreting environmental meaning, anticipating environmental changes, and adjusting internal set-points.
Peter Sterling (2024) puts it this way:
“Nearly all physiological and biochemical regulation is continuously and primarily managed by prediction, even the smallest changes when a thought flashes through the mind and predicts something that needs either raising or lowering various systems to adjust to the predicted demand. Corrective feedback is used secondarily when predictions fail. To me, this is the origin and purpose of the brain, to manage these predictions. When our body returns to “normal” from a deviation, normal is not due to a set point but to the brain’s prediction that this is the most likely level of demand. How the brain does this across time scales from milliseconds to decades and spatial scales from nanometers to meters, is a huge mystery.
The interactions that occur between the brain and body are quick and fully integrated, making it difficult to distinguish between these two functions. The brain predicts and the body responses in a highly adaptive and constantly changing manner.”
While Peter Sterling, as a neurobiologist, has focused on the body’s use of neurotransmitters, hormones, and other signaling mechanisms, I have expanded his analysis by looking at the function of stasis in all human systems.
Polystasis and T.O.T.E.
Not to distort Sterling’s important description and analysis of the allostatic processes operating in the human body, I am introducing a new term: Polystasis. I have created this word to designate the multiple functions engaged by complex human systems in addressing the issue of stasis. As Peter Sterling has noted, it is not simply a matter of returning to an established baseline of functioning (stasis) when considering how actions get planned and taken in a human system.
