Inverted synergy

Inverted Synergy
The term inverted synergy has been used in the context of research on mental health literacy (MHL) as descriptor for the dynamics and compounding effects of temporary or long-term counterproductive thinking and emotion dysregulation.
At the episodic level, inverted synergy may be operating during or following a distressing and dissonance-invoking event when the affected individual’s attempts at restoring coherence and emotional stability are counterproductive and result in escalating anxiety. Episodes of this kind may be experienced following an unanticipated loss such as a sudden relationship break-up, or a perceived failure, or the anticipation of failure at something perceived as important or any similarly distressing event. The episodes involve recursive scanning of the global cognitive framework for relevant memories or applicable knowledge that can discretely or through synthesis serve as the basis for a strategy to re-establish coherence and emotional equilibrium. Within this mental vortex, one anxiety inducing thought leads to another and so on, increasing the intensity of the anxiety as the sequence continues until an idea for regaining cognitive-emotional terra firma is intuited, remembered or offered by another person. The individual’s independent attempts to reverse inverted synergy may bring him or her to a level of distress at which the desire for coherence and emotional stability overrides his or her preference for self-direction, sometimes resulting in reaching-out to a trusted person. In such circumstances individuals may confide in another person or persons to obtain emotional support, but also to gain alternative perspectives, effectively enhancing their ability to cope by assimilating pertinent elements of the other person(s) distress management repertoire to augment or modify their own. Professional help may be indicated where the distress produced by negative cognitive-emotional synergy exceeds a clinical threshold.
According to Park and Folkman, individuals continue their efforts at meaning-making when their initial attempts are unsuccessful. Michael and Snyder suggest that individuals’ frustrated attempts at meaning-making are akin to rumination and distress. This phenomenon is conceptualized in Kusan’s study on MHL as “inverted synergy” which emphasizes the process rather than content aspects of rumination. Episodic inverted synergy does not imply organic impairment, nor is it an inevitable response to an unwelcome event. It may, however, suggest naivety regarding present dynamics and the absence of an established mental health heuristic for effectively negotiating the presenting situation. Put another way, people think what they think in the absence of a better alternative.
Beyond describing the dynamics of episodic escalation of counterproductive thoughts and dysregulated emotions, inverted synergy may also be a useful descriptor for the serial compounding of problematically assigned meanings over time. Each meaning made borrows from and confirms or revises one’s global meaning (the aggregation of meanings previously assigned), consolidating or recalibrating the global cognitive-emotional frame from which new meanings are made. At any point in the evolution of one’s personal narrative the consolidated aggregation of meanings comprise a guidepost for decisions to be taken. For individuals drawing upon impoverished or otherwise problematic literacies the likelihood of ineffectual and/or counterproductive mental health decision-making is undoubtedly increased, as is the likelihood of establishing a trajectory of mental health decision-making that is characterized by inverted synergy.
The concept of ‘inverted synergy’ is epistemologically and operationally related to ‘autologous knowledge-translation'. Both constructs permit non-pathologizing description and explication of many of the cognitive-emotional complications that may arise during the meaning-making process.
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