In this book the authors still adhered to and used the cognitive restructuring techniques created by Albert Ellis and Aaron Beck, although they added to them their own theoretical model about evolutionary development from childhood, influenced by the Jean Piaget's genetic epistemology and John Bowlby's attachment theory.
[7][8] Guidano later incorporated the influence of Donald T. Campbell and Karl Popper's evolutionary epistemology (the study of knowledge from a biological perspective), complex systems theory, Humberto Maturana's radical constructivism.
[11] Another postulate of the structural evolutionary approach is that the evolution of knowledge during childhood and later life operates in a dialectical manner, that is, the subject encounters situations in the world that confirm his previous schemes and others that are discrepant.
In fact, the therapist is a "strategically oriented disturber" who seeks to increase the patient's awareness of the tacit rules by which he organizes his experience.
[1][3][21][23] The concept of order through fluctuations comes from non-equilibrium thermodynamics and Ilya Prigogine’s chaos theory, developed in his work on non-linear systems.
[24] In Prigogine's theory, this concept is relevant in complex systems, such as nature, the brain or human societies, where internal fluctuations (small changes or perturbations) can generate a new form of organization.
According to Guidano, people are not static beings or simply reactive to their environment, but continually construct their reality through a constant balancing process that involves fluctuations or changes in their perception or understanding of themselves and the world.
This narrative is not something fixed or immutable, but is constantly changing, since the person can reconfigure it as he progresses in life, faces new challenges or undertakes new experiences.
Thus, Guidano proposes that identity is not a set of fixed attributes, but a narrative construction that adapts over time, depending on the experiences and the interpretation that each person makes of them.
According to Guidano, PMOs are fundamental emotional-cognitive structures or systems that help individuals make sense of their experiences and navigate the world.
PMOs are essentially self-organizing structures that give meaning to experiences and help an individual interpret events, relationships, and their own sense of self in a coherent and meaningful way.
Because of this, according to Guidano and Liotti, people with a phobic PMO perceive themselves as less capable than others of coping with the world and challenges of life outside the family environment.
[34] People with this organization structure their meaning around fear and anxiety, often developing rigid patterns of behavior designed to protect themselves from perceived threats.
They tend to overestimate the danger in situations and develop avoidance behaviors to cope with perceived risks, leading to restricted life experiences.
There is often a distorted relationship with the body and an obsessive focus on controlling food intake as a means of maintaining a sense of power and self-coherence.
These organizations are not pathological in themselves[35], but they can produce psychopathology when they become excessively rigid and limiting, leading to emotional distress and mental health problems.
Treatment, according to Guidano’s approach, often involves helping individuals reframe and reorganize these meanings to promote healthier, more adaptive ways of thinking and living.