This article, the sixth in a series developing the Huddling Systems Model (HSM), examines how symbolic coordination can turn against the organisms it evolved to serve. Building on HSM's account of "maximum drift" (the progressive decoupling of symbolic representations from physical constraints), the analysis identifies bidirectional coupling between symbolic and embodied systems as the key regulatory mechanism. Dysfunction emerges when this coupling rigidifies—the symbolic layer dominating downward while blocking upward feedback. Self-reference loops enable recursive amplification unavailable to non-symbolic organisms, explaining why human suffering elaborates indefinitely through meta-anxiety, meta-shame, and rules about rules. This mechanism is mapped onto individual pathologies (anxiety, depression, rumination, experiential avoidance) and extended to collective dysfunction (tribalism, moral rigidity, misinformation), revealing parallel coupling failures at both scales. The treatment principle follows directly: restore flexible bidirectional coupling. Acceptance and Commitment Therapy's core processes are reframed as coupling restoration techniques. The framework offers a non-pathologizing, mechanistically precise account of human psychological suffering as the predictable shadow cost of symbolic power—not defect or moral failure, but powerful cognitive machinery operating where its design assumptions fail. For Article 1, see: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.17297684 For Article 2, see: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.17390117 For Article 3, see: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.18303517 For Article 4, see: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.18314756 For Article 5, see: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.18316858
Rikard Calmbro (Wed,) studied this question.