Somatic Regulation as Active Causality: An Integrative Paradigm for Russian-Speaking Psychotherapy (Based on the Ideas of I.V. Davydovsky)

The subject of this study is the mechanisms of somatic regulation of mental states within the psychotherapeutic process, considered as a system of body-mediated influences on the conditions of formation, maintenance, and transformation of psychological symptoms within the framework of I.V. Davydovsky’s concept of active causality. The study focuses on the analysis of the interrelations among interoceptive, autonomic, cognitive, behavioral, and social regulatory processes that ensure the stability of symptomatic states and determine the possibilities for their therapeutic transformation. A specific aspect of the research subject is the examination of somatic interventions as a mechanism for modifying causally significant conditions that sustain mental tension, anxiety, and maladaptive reactions. The subject of the study also includes the development of an integrative theoretical model combining Russian concepts of causal-conditional determination of pathological processes with contemporary approaches to bodily regulation, interoception, predictive processing, and co-regulation in psychotherapy. The methodological basis of the study consists of Russian theoretical approaches to the causal-conditional determination of pathological processes, as well as contemporary models of interoceptive regulation, predictive processing, and co-regulation. As a result of the study, an integrative C–U Integrative (Cause–Conditions–Update) model is proposed, in which a psychological symptom is viewed as a dynamic process maintained by interconnected autonomic, cognitive, behavioral, and social conditions. Four regulatory circuits are identified—interoceptive-autonomic, predictive, social-vocal, and behavioral—which describe the mechanisms through which somatic interventions exert therapeutic effects. A structural framework for the clinical application of the model has been developed, including principles of assessment, selection of therapeutic entry points, and evaluation of intervention effectiveness. The scientific novelty of the study lies in the integration of I.V. Davydovsky’s concept of active causality with contemporary psychotherapeutic concepts of somatic regulation. The main conclusion of the study is that somatic regulation can be regarded as an independent mechanism for influencing the causally significant conditions involved in the formation and maintenance of psychological symptoms, thereby expanding the methodological foundations of integrative psychotherapy.