Individual presentation:
• Sandra Regina Rocha Mariscal Vargas:
Breaking Cycles of Violence Through a Stable Inner Ecology: The Elevated Psychic Environment Hypothesis
(60 min)

Abstract:

Violence is sustained not only by external conditions but also by internal psychological climates that repeatedly collapse into threat-reactive states. This presentation proposes a testable framework for understanding and interrupting such collapses: Deep Self-Care as a stabilizing infrastructure for an Elevated Psychic Environment (EPE). EPE refers to a relatively stable inner climate characterized by lower baseline arousal and threat reactivity, greater affective stability and flexibility, stronger inhibitory control under provocation, and improved reflective functioning (mentalization). Deep self-care is operationalized as sustained, structured practices that support (a) physiological regulation (sleep regularity, recovery, movement, nutrition stability), (b) reflective functioning (emotion labeling, journaling/psychotherapy/analysis, perspective-taking), and (c) relational containment (boundary hygiene, de-escalation habits, co-regulation skills). The core hypothesis is that individuals and groups can briefly reach calmer, clearer states but often struggle to maintain them; without such maintenance, daily stressors amplify negativity bias, hostile attribution, impulsivity, and rumination, increasing the likelihood of escalation.

The deep self-care model addresses violence across levels: interpersonal (reactive aggression in dyads and families), institutional (escalation cultures in schools, workplaces, and organizations), and political/large-group contexts (polarization, scapegoating, and conflict amplification). From a psychohistorical standpoint, repeated civilizational escalations may reflect chronic large-group dysregulation in response to accumulated trauma and institutionalized threat narratives. From this perspective, collective trauma contributes to persistent threat reactivity at scale, while large-group identity can bind meaning and fear into institutional dynamics, producing an “institutional EPE collapse” characterized by rigid defenses, humiliation sensitivity, and rapid escalation. Thus, internal maintenance failures at the individual and group level are proposed to mirror—and help reproduce—historical patterns of escalation.

Six propositions guide an empirical evaluation: (1) consistent deep self-care predicts higher EPE; (2) higher EPE predicts weaker provocation-to-aggression coupling; (3) EPE buffers stressors, reducing the transition from stress to anger, rumination, and reactive aggression; (4) groups with higher average EPE show fewer escalation cycles and stronger cooperative norms; (5) EPE can spread via co-regulation, reducing interpersonal contagion of threat and hostility; and (6) institutional supports that protect recovery, boundaries, and meaning-making increase group-level EPE and reduce conflict incidents. A research agenda is outlined to operationalize EPE using a concise measure plus intensive longitudinal assessment (EMA), randomized micro-interventions, and multi-level field studies linking EPE to conflict and cooperation outcomes.

Keywords: co-regulation, deep self-care, Elevated Psychic Environment (EPE), large-group dysregulation, mentalization, psychohistory, threat reactivity, violence prevention

Short Bio:

Sandra Regina Rocha Mariscal Vargas, PhD, is a university professor at the Federal University of the Semi-Arid Region (UFERSA), Brazil (Computer Science Department), and a practicing psychoanalyst. Her interdisciplinary work integrates psychoanalytic theory, self-regulation research, and civilizational perspectives on social stability, examining how internal psychological environments shape cooperation, conflict escalation, and collective healing. She develops conceptual models and applied frameworks connecting individual mental health to institutional and societal outcomes. She can be reached at .