Prefrontal deactivation names a family of phenomena in which activity within frontal cortical regions—most commonly the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC), ventromedial prefrontal cortex (VMPFC), medial prefrontal cortex (MPFC), and orbitofrontal cortex (OFC)—falls below baseline levels during specific cognitive, emotional, or pharmacological conditions. Within the depth-psychology corpus, the term serves as a pivot between neuroscientific description and psychological interpretation: it marks the moment when the brain’s executive governor steps back, whether pathologically or adaptively. Marc Lewis frames prefrontal deactivation as the terminal stage in addiction’s architecture, in which initial hyperactivation of dorsolateral control systems collapses into disconnection from motivational circuitry, enabling compulsive behavior. Bradley Peterson and Katya Rubia situate it within ADHD research, documenting insufficient task-related deactivation of default-mode nodes alongside inadequate prefrontal recruitment—a double failure correctable by psychostimulants. Norman Farb and colleagues recast dorsomedial prefrontal deactivation as a potentially salutary shift: mindfulness-trained subjects show DMPFC suppression during interoceptive attention that signals a qualitative change from evaluative, narrative self-processing toward diffuse sensory presence. Ruth Lanius adds a trauma-clinical dimension, noting that excessive medial prefrontal activation in dissociative PTSD functions as inhibitory override of limbic arousal, complicating any simple valuation of prefrontal deactivation as deficit. Together these voices reveal a persistent tension: deactivation is simultaneously a sign of dysregulation and, under the right conditions, of liberation from over-governing self-referential cognition.