Psycho-Thermodynamics: A Functional Model of Load, Rhythm, and Coherence in Human Systems

Psychology possesses many powerful vocabularies for describing cognition, affect, behaviour, development, and disorder, yet it often lacks a clear cross-scale grammar for describing what systems do under sustained load. Symptoms are named, traits inferred, narratives constructed, and interventions prescribed, but the underlying state dynamics of a person-in-environment are often rendered only indirectly. This paper proposes psycho-thermodynamics as a functional framework for describing regulation, dysregulation, and repair in human systems. The model treats mind not as a sealed object, but as an open, nested system shaped by load, friction, reserves, rhythm, feedback, and phase state. Within this account,…