ABSTRACT
A model of information processing competence includes consensual assumptions made by neuroscientists about relationships between brain areas and mental functions. The aim of all psychotherapies is to remediate the damages done to the person's competence to process information and experience pleasure in life. Information about the organs and muscles is received in neocortical semantic processing areas via myelinated neurons. The foundational concepts have the most influence on organising the mental field, and establishing ground rules for a lifetime of making sense of things. Mental control or competence depends on: the validity of the concepts used to contain and explain sensations, and other concepts; and habits learned to activate control-relevant concepts at the right times and places. If the person's early or later development is marked by frank trauma, or if caregivers were chronically unable to register competently enough the child's physical and mental states, the person may wind up in psychotherapy.
