Applying the Free Energy Principle to Attachment Theory: Implications for Internal Working Models and Mental Health

As an altricial species, humans require care during their early years. Failure to attach to caregivers can be fatal, as children cannot survive without it. If caregivers dismiss or reject a child's prototypical attachment behaviours, the child must adapt to survive. Adaptive patterns are internal working models that facilitate adequate attachment to caregivers and enhance survival, but they also foster a conditional sense of safety; safety is earned through actions that sustain the attachment. Here, it is proposed that conditional attachment experiences become linked to an enduring affective state that is gradually recognised as homeostatic. Maintaining this homeostasis maximises survival chances. The free energy principle suggests that prediction models, which have a high degree of overlap with internal working models, operate to sustain homeostasis. Prediction models do not alter affective homeostasis to fit changing environments. Instead, they update the individual's perception, cognition, and behaviour patterns to preserve the established homeostasis. Early attachment relationships that require these survival-driven adaptations can lead to psychological disorders. As individuals mature, disorders may develop, persist, or worsen due to prediction model adaptations aimed at maintaining homeostasis.