Entropic Brain Hypothesis

entropy is suppressed in normal waking consciousness, meaning that the brain operates just below criticality. It is argued that this entropy suppression furnishes normal waking consciousness with a constrained quality and associated metacognitive functions, including reality-testing and self-awareness.

This passage states the central thesis of the Entropic Brain Hypothesis: that secondary consciousness is defined by sub-critical entropy suppression, which underwrites ego functions such as reality-testing and self-awareness.

Carhart-Harris, Robin, The Entropic Brain: A Theory of Conscious States Informed by Neuroimaging Research with Psychedelic Drugs, 2014thesis

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the transition from normal waking consciousness to primary consciousness is marked by an increase in system entropy. INCREASED NETWORK ENTROPY IN THE PSYCHEDELIC STATE There is an emerging view in cognitive neuroscience that the brain self-organizes under normal conditions into transiently stable spatiotemporal configurations

This passage articulates the core entropic principle: psychedelic and other primary states involve measurable increases in brain network entropy relative to the organized configurations characteristic of normal waking consciousness.

Carhart-Harris, Robin, The Entropic Brain: A Theory of Conscious States Informed by Neuroimaging Research with Psychedelic Drugs, 2014thesis

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If the brain was to be sampled during a primary state (such as a psychedelic state) we would predict that the rules that normally apply to normal waking consciousness will become less robust.

The hypothesis predicts that primary consciousness dissolves the normally stable anti-correlations between brain networks — particularly between the DMN and task-positive networks — yielding a less constrained, higher-entropy state.

Carhart-Harris, Robin, The Entropic Brain: A Theory of Conscious States Informed by Neuroimaging Research with Psychedelic Drugs, 2014thesis

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In dreams, psychosis and other altered states, archetypal themes shaped by human history emerge into consciousness (Jung, 1982a). Jung's account of the 'collective' unconscious fits comfortably with the phenomenology of the psychedelic experience.

The paper positions Jungian collective unconscious theory as phenomenologically consistent with the high-entropy primary states described in the hypothesis, linking neurological entropy to the emergence of archetypal imagery.

Carhart-Harris, Robin, The Entropic Brain: A Theory of Conscious States Informed by Neuroimaging Research with Psychedelic Drugs, 2014supporting

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one reason why the DMN is so highly and persistently active, is that it receive regular endogenous input from internal drivers... its enduring presence fits comfortably with the idea that it is the seat of the ego

The paper identifies the DMN as the neurological substrate of the Freudian ego, whose persistent high-level activity constitutes the entropy-suppressing mechanism central to secondary consciousness.

Carhart-Harris, Robin, The Entropic Brain: A Theory of Conscious States Informed by Neuroimaging Research with Psychedelic Drugs, 2014supporting

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The dominant theoretical and therapeutic approach during the early era of psychedelic research was psychoanalytic. Psychedelics were used therapeutically under the rationale that they work to lower psychological defenses to allow personal conflicts to come to the fore

This passage situates the Entropic Brain Hypothesis within the historical lineage of psychoanalytic psychedelic research, showing the hypothesis as a neurobiological reformulation of the classical ego-defense model.

Carhart-Harris, Robin, The Entropic Brain: A Theory of Conscious States Informed by Neuroimaging Research with Psychedelic Drugs, 2014supporting

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Decreased PCC alpha power predicts ego-disintegration and magical thinking after psilocybin... the one enquiring about ego-disintegration showed the closest relationship with the decreases in alpha power

Empirical neuroimaging data linking decreased posterior cingulate cortex alpha power to ego dissolution provides quantitative support for the hypothesis that entropy-related neural changes correspond to primary-state phenomenology.

Carhart-Harris, Robin, The Entropic Brain: A Theory of Conscious States Informed by Neuroimaging Research with Psychedelic Drugs, 2014supporting

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a key distinction between the primary and secondary modes of cognition is that secondary consciousness pays deference to reality and diligently seeks to represent the world as precisely as possible

The hypothesis articulates a structural opposition between primary and secondary consciousness that maps onto thermodynamic order and disorder, with secondary consciousness defined by its reality-constraining, entropy-minimizing function.

Carhart-Harris, Robin, The Entropic Brain: A Theory of Conscious States Informed by Neuroimaging Research with Psychedelic Drugs, 2014supporting

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it was his 'metapsychology' that had the most to offer science (Freud, 1949), and at least as a first step, this is where psychoanalytic theory (rather than psychoanalytic practice) should look to develop its scientific credibility.

The paper explicitly grounds the Entropic Brain Hypothesis in Freudian metapsychology, arguing that the neurobiological framework vindicates the scientific aspirations of psychoanalytic structural theory.

Carhart-Harris, Robin, The Entropic Brain: A Theory of Conscious States Informed by Neuroimaging Research with Psychedelic Drugs, 2014supporting

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Magical thinking is more likely in situations of high uncertainty because there is a greater opportunity for dreaming up explanations that lack an evidence base... Wishful beliefs are a classic product of magical thinking because they interpret the world according to what an individual wants to be true

The hypothesis connects high-entropy brain states to the emergence of magical thinking and wish-fulfillment, mapping Freudian pleasure-principle cognition onto conditions of increased neural disorder.

Carhart-Harris, Robin, The Entropic Brain: A Theory of Conscious States Informed by Neuroimaging Research with Psychedelic Drugs, 2014supporting

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we seek to explore how recent advances in the neurosciences provide clarity on the neurological conditions under which archetypal content becomes more especially salient and how the hierarchically structured organization of the brain affords the emergence and experience of the collective unconscious

McGovern's eigenmode framework extends the logic of the Entropic Brain Hypothesis by asking under what neurological conditions — implicitly high-entropy, low-hierarchical-constraint — Jungian archetypal content becomes phenomenologically prominent.

McGovern, Hugh, Eigenmodes of the Deep Unconscious: The Neuropsychology of Jungian Archetypes and Psychedelic Experience, 2025supporting

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the ego is not just a (high-level) sensation of self-hood; it is a fundamental sy[stem]... In psychoanalytical theory however, the ego is also a system which works in concert with and against other processes in the brain to determine the quality of consciousness.

The paper grounds the Freudian ego as an active neural system whose suppression of entropy determines the quality and structure of conscious experience, forming the mechanistic core of the hypothesis.

Carhart-Harris, Robin, The Entropic Brain: A Theory of Conscious States Informed by Neuroimaging Research with Psychedelic Drugs, 2014supporting

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Aphrodite's wrath is entropic chaos. What saves Psyche is the transcendent element present in the tale from the beginning... that which transforms entropic chaos into deterministic chaos is fractal both in dimension and in structural and dynamic self-similarity across scale.

Ulanov's mythological analysis independently deploys the language of entropic chaos and deterministic chaos, anticipating the thermodynamic vocabulary of the Entropic Brain Hypothesis within a depth-psychological reading of the Eros and Psyche myth.

Ulanov, Ann Belford, The Feminine in Jungian Psychology and in Christian Theology, 1971aside

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the patterns that are beginning to emerge from studies of chaotic dynamics bear an intriguing resemblance to those Jung described... Seeking to describe complex dynamic systems previously beyond the scope of classical mathematics and physics, the hard sciences are beginning to speak a language remarkably similar to Jung's.

Ulanov identifies a structural convergence between chaos theory and Jungian symbolic psychology, providing a precedent within the depth-psychology corpus for the thermodynamic framing that the Entropic Brain Hypothesis later formalizes.

Ulanov, Ann Belford, The Feminine in Jungian Psychology and in Christian Theology, 1971aside

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Carhart-Harris, R. L., Leech, R., Hellyer, P. J., Shanahan, M., Feilding, A., Tagliazucchi, E., Chialvo, D. R., & Nutt, D. (2014). The entropic brain: A theory of conscious states informed by neuroimaging research with psychedelic drugs.

Schoeller's neurobiology of aesthetic experience cites the Entropic Brain paper as a reference point, indicating its circulation as a foundational source across neighboring areas of consciousness research within the corpus.

Schoeller, Felix, The neurobiology of aesthetic chills: How bodily sensations shape emotional experiences, 2024aside

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As we begin speaking about the role of dissipative structures, we move into thermodynamic and chaos theory. Thermodynamic theory has much to offer in our investigation

Conforti's discussion of dissipative structures and thermodynamic theory in the context of Jungian field psychology represents an earlier strain of the same intellectual tradition the Entropic Brain Hypothesis systematizes neurobiologically.

Conforti, Michael, Field, Form, and Fate: Patterns in Mind, Nature, and Psyche, 1999aside

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