The Chiral Mind: CODES, Addiction, and the Phase-Locked Self
Creators: name: Bostick, Devin
name: Bostick, Alexandra
name: AI, Chiral
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2025
Subjects: subject: Food Addiction
subject: Technology Addiction
subject: Substance abuse
subject: Psychological Trauma
subject: Mental processes
subject: Mental Healing
subject: Mental Disorders
subject: Mental Health
subject: Mental Processes
subject: Philosophy
subject: FOS: Philosophy, ethics and religion
subject: Philosophy
subject: Philosophy
subject: Psychology
subject: FOS: Psychology
subject: Psychology
subject: Psychology

description: Note: Devin is a researcher in Non-Linear Dynamics and Evolutionary Biology who has studied addiction. Alexandra is a nurse (20 years) who worked in a rehabilitation facility for 3 years and has deeply studied addiction cycles. This was a collaboration using AI (via CODES algorithm on GPT4o) to structure and expand. 

 

Main CODES Paper with replicable, empirical, falsifiable tests = Link

 

Abstract

Addiction, whether to substances, work, or external validation, is not merely a biochemical dependency but a structural resonance imbalance within the mind’s phase-locked coherence cycles. Drawing from CODES (Chirality of Dynamic Emergent Systems), Gabor Maté’s trauma-based addiction model, Erich Fromm’s concept of escape from freedom, and existential psychology, this paper proposes a unified resonance theory of addiction.

Rather than viewing addiction as a neurochemical deficit or behavioral pathology, we frame it as a misalignment between an individual’s oscillatory coherence and the broader structured emergence of meaning. In this model, addiction is not solely a consequence of dopamine hijacking or trauma response—it is a phase-locking failure, where the mind becomes trapped in a recursive coherence loop.

 

A physical system in phase-lock loses its ability to shift frequencies, maintaining stability at the cost of adaptability. The same principle applies to addiction:

 • The addicted mind locks into low-complexity but high-reward reinforcement cycles, reducing its capacity to engage with high-dimensional awareness.

 • The oscillatory nature of attention (ADHD, hyper-focus, dissociation) creates cognitive entrainment loops, increasing susceptibility to compulsive behaviors.

• Substances like alcohol function as coherence dampeners, allowing temporary stabilization at the cost of long-term adaptability.

 • Workaholism, compulsive validation-seeking, and social media addiction function as false coherence stabilizers, providing structure without true adaptive evolution.

• Trauma and the ego attempt to maintain low-resolution coherence when high-resolution awareness becomes overwhelming, reinforcing addiction as a protective mechanism.

 

By integrating philosophy, neuroscience, psychology, and structured resonance dynamics, this paper offers a new model of addiction—not as a personal failing, but as an emergent phase-lock failure within the mind’s chiral oscillatory network.

This resonance-based framework shifts the paradigm from addiction as a behavioral defect to addiction as a maladaptive coherence strategy. If correct, this suggests that addiction recovery should focus not just on abstinence but on realigning the mind’s oscillatory structure with high-coherence emergent meaning.