The Relational Substrate of Reflective Consciousness: A Metabolic Constraint Model

Co-regulation functions as a metabolic constraint on human reflective consciousness. Integrating Dynamic

Systems Theory, Social Baseline Theory, Active Inference, and Affective Neuroscience, we model the

integrated, narrative self as a high-cost predictive state requiring a “relational nexus” to minimize metabolic

demand. Three claims follow: (1) higher-order cognition is contingent upon somatic solvency; (2) the

relational nexus, not the individual, is the bio-energetic baseline; (3) psychopathology represents collapse

into rigid, metabolically trapped attractor states. We generate novel falsifiable predictions including

metabolic threshold effects on mentalization mitigated by co-regulatory presence, adult gene expression

modulated by current relational quality, and therapeutic outcomes predicted by rupture-repair dynamics.

Individual-focused interventions address symptoms but not the energetic substrate; lasting change requires

ecological intervention targeting the relational conditions that enable metabolic solvency for reflective

consciousness. This model offers a bio-energetic framework for reinterpreting the neural architecture of

the self, positioning social coupling not as a behavioral add-on, but as a physiological prerequisite for

high-order cognition.

Keywords: co-regulation, reflective consciousness, psychological trauma, attachment theory, somatic

regulation, allostasis, interoception, embodied cognition, social baseline theory, dissociation, dysregulation,

active inference, system dynamics, transdiagnostic psychopathology1

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