NETWORK
FOUNDATIONS
Nodal Psychology is a way of understanding inner life as a living network rather than a single “self” hidden deep inside you. It takes familiar ideas from Jung (archetypes, shadow, Self), humanistic psychology (authenticity, growth, the actualizing tendency), and parts work like IFS, and rewrites them using the language of nodes, patterns, and flexibility.
​
Below is a plain-language walkthrough aimed at someone who has never heard of it before.
The basic problem Nodal Psychology tries to solve
Jungian and humanistic psychology are rich, but they have a shared headache:
-
Jung talks about archetypes and the collective unconscious—powerful ideas, but hard to test or define clearly.
-
Humanistic psychology talks about authenticity, self-actualization, organismic valuing, etc.—also powerful, but often quite vague and very Western-individualist.
Nodal Psychology_ A Network Ref…
Clinically, these ideas work: people recognize their “inner critic,” a “Hero” phase, or the feeling of becoming more real and congruent. But theoretically they’re often unfalsifiable, culturally biased, and not very precise structurally.
Nodal Psychology asks:
What if we kept the depth and meaning of these traditions, but described them as patterns in a network we can actually map, study, and adjust?
Thinking in networks: nodes, edges, and hubs
Instead of imagining a single inner “self,” Nodal Psychology imagines your psyche as a network:
-
Nodes = elements of your psychological life:
-
thoughts (“I’m a burden”),
-
feelings (shame, excitement),
-
sensations (tight chest),
-
memories,
-
roles (“parent,” “caretaker”),
-
parts (“inner critic,” “scared child”),
-
even spiritual beliefs (“God is disappointed in me,” “everything is connected”).
-
-
Edges = the connections between them:
-
“If I say no, people leave,”
-
“Success = love,”
-
“Anger → danger,”
-
“Feeling grounded when I walk in the woods.”
-
Over time, certain nodes become hubs—highly connected points that organize whole regions of your life. For example:
-
A Caregiver hub: “other people’s needs first,” “I’m good when I sacrifice,” “my feelings are selfish.”
-
A Hero hub: “I must be exceptional,” “failure = worthlessness,” “rest is laziness.”
These are what the paper calls nodal archetypes: not mystical templates floating in a collective unconscious, but recurring hub-patterns that show up because they are common “solutions” to life challenges like getting love, staying safe, or belonging.
​
Archetypes as nodal patterns, not inherited “forms”
Jung said archetypes are inherited universal patterns. Nodal Psychology keeps the pattern idea but drops the metaphysics. It proposes:
-
There are recurring structural patterns (like Caregiver, Hero, Outcast) that show up often because they “work” in many environments.
-
But the content of those patterns—what counts as heroic, what caregiving looks like—comes from culture, family, and personal history, not from an inborn blueprint.
So instead of saying:
“You have a Hero archetype installed in your psyche by evolution.”
Nodal Psychology says:
“A cluster of nodes in your network has formed a Hero-like hub pattern—and we can look at how it formed, what it connects to, and whether it’s helping you or trapping you.”
​
This also helps fix Jung’s cultural blind spots. What Jung called “universal” often reflected Western, male, individualist assumptions (lone hero, strict gender binaries). The same structure (a hub organizing striving and recognition) may exist in collectivist cultures—but there, being “heroic” might mean supporting the group rather than standing out.
The Self Node instead of a mystical Self
Jung’s Self was “center and circumference of the psyche,” half-metaphor, half-metaphysics. That’s evocative but hard to work with scientifically.
​
Nodal Psychology reframes the Self as a Self Node:
-
Not a magical inner soul, but
-
A meta-hub that can connect to many different nodes and coordinate them without being fused with any one of them.
In experience, this looks like:
-
The IFS-style “Self” state: calm, compassionate, clear, curious.
-
The felt sense of “I’m more than any single part of me.”
-
The ability to hold anger, fear, shame, and desire without being swallowed by them.
When the Self Node is strongly active, the whole network gets more flexible and integrated: it’s easier to notice parts, shift gears, and choose responses. In network terms, this can be thought of as a phase shift—a temporary re-organization of the system toward openness and coherence.
Flexibility vs. stuckness: what “health” means here
Instead of defining mental health by which nodes are present (“no anxiety,” “no anger”), Nodal Psychology defines it by how flexible the network is:
-
A rigid network:
-
Few hubs dominate,
-
Same patterns fire regardless of context (“say no → guilt → apologize → overextend”),
-
Emotions and parts get locked into polarizations (e.g., inner critic vs. rebel).
-
-
A flexible network:
-
Multiple hubs, with room for newer, healthier patterns to develop,
-
The system can shift configurations based on current reality,
-
Conflicts can be mediated rather than one side winning.
-
One of the explicit propositions in the paper is that polarizations (two big hubs locked in mutual inhibition) create rigidity, and that Self-mediated dialogue between polarized parts is more effective than simply trying to suppress one side.
​
So therapy, in this frame, is less about “erase symptoms” and more about:
“Help the network become more flexible, integrated, and responsive.”
Culture and neurodiversity: different networks, not broken ones
Nodal Psychology is very explicit about culture and neurodiversity:
-
Culture is seen as a field of meanings that shapes which nodes and hubs develop.
-
Western individualist cultures tend to build Hero patterns around standing out and Caregiver patterns around self-sacrifice.
-
Collectivist cultures may organize “heroism” and “care” around supporting the group, harmony, and obligations—so a pattern that looks like “enmeshment” from a Western lens may actually be adaptive.
​
-
-
Neurodiversity is framed as alternative network architectures, not just deficits. Autistic, ADHD, and other neurodivergent folks often have different connectivity patterns—strong intense interests, different sensory linkages, different social prediction networks—that can function very well in the right environment.
​
The upshot: instead of forcing everyone into one “healthy” configuration, Nodal Psychology asks:
-
“What does flexibility look like within this person’s cultural and neurotype context?”
-
“What network configurations work for them, rather than for some abstract norm?”
Spirituality as meaning-networks, not dogma
Spirituality shows up in Nodal Psychology as meaning patterns that sit higher in the network and help re-organize distress. For example, facing a terminal illness:
-
A Christian might connect suffering to “carrying one’s cross” and reunion with God.
-
An existentialist might connect it to “choosing one’s attitude” and living authentically.
-
A naturalist might connect it to “returning to natural cycles” and appreciating finite beauty.
​
Different content, same structure: these are higher-order nodes that change how lower-level fear and pain are organized.
Nodal Psychology doesn’t claim to know whether spiritual beliefs are metaphysically true. It simply says:
“These meaning-nodes are real, they change how networks function, and they can powerfully support growth and integration.”
​
The Self Node can intersect with spiritual experiences—states of spaciousness, connection, or unity can be understood as strong Self-Node activation reorganizing the network, whether one interprets that as God, higher consciousness, or a natural phase shift.
So what does this actually do for a person?
For someone new to Nodal Psychology, the key practical shifts are:
-
From “What’s wrong with me?” to “How is my network wired right now?”
-
You’re not a diagnosis; you’re a dynamic pattern of nodes and connections that made sense in earlier contexts.
-
-
From “Find my one true self” to “Strengthen my Self Node.”
-
Instead of hunting for a pure essence, you cultivate the capacity to relate to all your parts, patterns, and stories with curiosity and compassion.
-
-
From “Eliminate symptoms” to “Increase flexibility.”
-
Anxiety, anger, or shutdown aren’t enemies to destroy; they’re nodes in a network we can remap and integrate, especially by softening rigid hubs and polarizations.
-
-
From “fit the norm” to “fit my context.”
-
Culture, neurotype, and spirituality are not noise—they’re part of the network. Health is context-sensitive, not one-size-fits-all.​
-
At its core, Nodal Psychology is an invitation:
See yourself not as a fixed type or a broken machine, but as a living, evolving network of meanings that can be re-patterned toward more freedom, connection, and authenticity.