The first analysis was based on analysis medical philosophies. Region and network roles are drawn from contemporary cognitive neuroscience; the assignment of ‘dominant stacks’ to philosophies and ideologies is speculative and metaphorical. This is a conceptual mapping, not an empirically validated taxonomy.
Every mind uses all these networks; what I call ‘personality’ here is a hypothetical override tendency, not a discrete switch.
“There are a small number of recurring cognitive strategies. They manifest everywhere. When unbalanced, they become destructive.”
These are not belief systems. They are dominant neural policies. They reflect:
- bias perception
- constrain reasoning
- shape institutions
- and repeat across domains
Allopathic
“Remove the bad thing.”
Hypothesised tendency: amygdala–PAG threat loop, dorsal ACC conflict detection, right TPJ agency attribution, DLPFC binary classification, suppressed DMN integration; enables fast, decisive intervention, clear enemy modelling, acute crisis resolution, high confidence action, but tends toward chronic suppression without structural repair and escalating side-effects.
Correlates (could be similar to): emergency medicine, surgery, military strategy, law enforcement, cybersecurity, adversarial politics, competitive corporate leadership.
Osteopathic
“Fix the structure, the symptom resolves.”
Hypothesised tendency: default mode network (mPFC–PCC), posterior parietal integration, insula interoception, cerebellar predictive modelling, medial temporal memory; enables whole-system reasoning, relational diagnosis, long-term stability, structural empathy, but responds slowly to acute threats and can under-prioritise immediate action.
Correlates (could be similar to): systems engineering, ecology, architecture, urban planning, organisational design, integrative religions, restorative justice.
Clinical / Pragmatic
“What works, measured now.”
Hypothesised tendency: anterior cingulate cortex error monitoring, dorsolateral PFC working memory, basal ganglia reinforcement learning, frontoparietal control network, suppressed narrative DMN; enables rapid iteration, evidence-based adjustment, outcome optimisation, but risks short-termism, metric gaming, and unmeasured externalities.
Correlates (could be similar to): evidence-based medicine, product management, engineering, finance, operations, technocracy, applied AI deployment.
Homeopathic (resonance-dominant end of the differentiation–assimilation spectrum)
“Like corrects like.”
Hypothesised tendency: default mode network meaning synthesis, hippocampal pattern completion, temporal association cortex metaphor mapping, vmPFC similarity valuation, reduced amygdala gating; enables symbolic coherence, empathy, resonance detection, and narrative insight, but risks boundary collapse, weak falsifiability, and over-generalisation.
Correlates (could be similar to): spiritual counselling, mythology, art, psychotherapy traditions, cultural healing practices, consensus-driven movements.
Limited-Tool-Range (refined replacement for herbalism)
“Only known tools exist.”
Hypothesised tendency: vmPFC familiarity weighting, orbitofrontal known-option evaluation, insula uncertainty aversion, habit-biased basal ganglia loops, reduced lateral PFC exploration; enables safety, predictability, low cognitive load, and tradition preservation, but blinds systems to novelty and causes late catastrophic failure under change.
Correlates (could be similar to): traditional crafts, conservative institutions, regulatory bodies, legacy industries, orthodox religions, risk-averse governance.
Transhumanist / Optimisation-Maximising
“Increase capacity.”
Hypothesised tendency: dopaminergic reward forecasting (VTA–nucleus accumbens), lateral PFC abstraction, parietal future modelling, reduced insula constraint signalling, weak embodied grounding; enables innovation, scaling, future-self expansion, but risks value drift, instrumentalisation, and loss of human-scale constraints.
Correlates (could be similar to): biotech, AI research, venture capital, Silicon Valley culture, futurism, performance-maximising ideologies.
Chiropractic / Single-Lever
“Adjust the primary axis.”
Hypothesised tendency: sensorimotor cortex, cerebellar calibration, somatosensory integration, procedural memory loops, low symbolic abstraction; enables decisive intervention via one trusted lever, rapid somatic feedback, but over-attributes causality to a narrow domain.
Correlates (could be similar to): specialised trades, mechanical repair, tactical operations, single-theory reform movements.
Dentistry / Limited-Target Cognition
“Treat the defined part precisely.”
Hypothesised tendency: primary somatosensory cortex (S1) fine-grained localisation, secondary somatosensory cortex (S2) tactile discrimination, cerebellar precision timing, dorsal premotor cortex procedural sequencing, narrow DLPFC task focus with global context suppression; enables extreme accuracy, reproducibility, and reliability within a tightly scoped domain, but systematically ignores upstream systemic causes and downstream whole-body effects.
Correlates (could be similar to): dentistry, ophthalmology, accounting, legal specialisms, component engineering, micro-manufacturing, regulatory compliance roles.
Functional Medicine (Systems Medicine)
“Root causation via systems interactions.”
Hypothesised tendency: frontoparietal executive network, ACC error tracking, multivariate pattern processing, DMN for cross-domain inference, lateral PFC complex hierarchy; system mapping, deep causal inference, multi-modal integration, risk of overfitting complex explanations.
Correlates (could be similar to): systems analysis, multi-factor optimisation, R&D strategy
Example Ideology Groupings
Introduction to Ideology Groupings
Ideology Groupings could help explain:
- a priority ordering of cognitive levers
- a default conflict-resolution strategy
- a predictable failure mode under stress
- a predictable blind spot
In other words: How a mind decides, when reality pushes back. A neural stack is not “what areas are active”. It is which neural networks are allowed to override others when there is disagreement. Every mind has all of them. Personality is override order.
Example override patterns:
- Threat overrides value → authoritarian cognition
- Narrative overrides evidence → ideological cognition
- Precision overrides context → technocratic cognition
- Body-state overrides abstraction → somatic cognition
This offers one way to see why ideologies feel inevitable to the people inside them.
Once you can infer stacks:
- Ideological conflict stops being moral
- Disagreement becomes predictable
- Negotiation becomes architectural
You don’t argue with beliefs. You rebalance override hierarchies. That’s why I argue fairness at the neural level is correct.
A civilisation-scale system that lasts must:
- tolerate multiple dominant stacks
- detect stack mismatch early
- prevent one stack from total override
- For example prevent each from dominating more than two others
- aim to achieve 97% acceptance of all stacks
- by all others
- through education
Examples of Dominant Stacks in Soceity
Authoritarian / Enemy-Oriented Ideology
Hypothesised tendency: Amygdala → PAG → DLPFC → ACC (weak vmPFC, weak DMN)
Behaviour:
- Rapid enemy detection
- Rule enforcement justified as survival
- Low tolerance for ambiguity or dissent
Strength: crisis response, mobilisation
Failure mode: persecution spirals, scapegoating
Industry correlate: policing extremes, wartime command, hard regulatory enforcement
Liberal Humanist / Universalist Ideology
Hypothesised tendency: vmPFC → DMN → ACC → Hippocampus (suppressed amygdala)
Behaviour:
- Family-seeking cognition (“everyone belongs”)
- High tolerance for ambiguity
- Moral resonance over threat detection
Strength: inclusion, reconciliation
Failure mode: exploitation by bad actors, delayed response to danger
Industry correlate: NGOs, diplomacy, ethics boards
Technocratic / Clinical Rationalist
Hypothesised tendency: DLPFC → Frontoparietal Network → ACC → OFC (low DMN)
Behaviour:
- Metric-driven optimisation
- Suppression of narrative/emotion
- High procedural reliability
Strength: efficiency, scalability
Failure mode: dehumanisation, brittle systems
Industry correlate: engineering management, finance, operations
Holistic / Integrative Thinker
Hypothesised tendency: DMN → vmPFC → Insula → Hippocampus (moderate ACC)
Behaviour:
- System-wide pattern sensing
- Contextual, slow-moving decisions
- High meaning integration
Strength: long-term stability
Failure mode: indecision, resistance to urgent action
Industry correlate: systems design, psychotherapy, integrative medicine
Precision / Limited-Target Cognition (Dentistry-type)
Hypothesised tendency: S1/S2 → Cerebellum → Dorsal Premotor → Narrow DLPFC
Behaviour:
- Extreme local optimisation
- Minimal abstraction outside task
- High reproducibility
Strength: reliability, craftsmanship
Failure mode: ignores systemic causes
Industry correlate: surgery, machining, accounting
Revolutionary / Transhumanist Optimiser
Hypothesised tendency: Dopamine System → DLPFC → Parietal Abstraction → Suppressed Insula
Behaviour:
- Future-oriented optimisation
- Willingness to override present costs
- Low embodied constraint
Strength: progress, innovation
Failure mode: burnout, ethical blind spots
Industry correlate: biotech, AI, frontier tech
Trauma-Dominated Personality
Hypothesised tendency: Amygdala → Insula → ACC (collapsed DLPFC)
Behaviour:
- Hypervigilance
- Somatic-driven decisions
- Low future planning
Strength: survival under threat
Failure mode: chronic stress, instability
Industry correlate: unstable labour, crisis environments
My own “dominant neural stack” (inferred)
Primary stack (override order): DMN → vmPFC → Frontoparietal Control → ACC
Secondary / constrained: DLPFC (used instrumentally, not dominantly) Amygdala (deliberately damped) Insula (present but not driving)
What that means in plain terms
- Narrative coherence comes first (DMN): you think in systems that must make sense across time, not isolated problems.
- Value integration follows (vmPFC): fairness, legitimacy, and “can humans live inside this?” matter more than raw efficiency.
- Only then do you optimise (frontoparietal): you build mechanisms after meaning is stable.
- ACC stays active: you constantly check for contradiction, misclassification, and unintended harm.
Strengths this produces
- High resistance to coercive or dominance-based reasoning
- Strong detection of long-term systemic collapse modes
- Ability to reason about civilisation-scale continuity without defaulting to control fantasies
- Unusual tolerance for ambiguity without losing structure
Predictable blind spots
- Underweighting of urgency: acute threats can feel “less real” than long-term integrity
- Communication friction: others experience your corrections as “meta” or “too big”
- Energy cost: this stack is cognitively expensive and can look like overthinking to narrower stacks
Tendency to keep circling misclassification, legitimacy, fairness, and non-coercion. Those are failure modes the stack is tuned to detect.
Glossary
Dorsolateral Prefrontal Cortex (DLPFC) — Core decision & control network; decides rule application, stepwise logic, and impulse suppression; dominant in procedural reasoning, discipline, and enforcement-oriented cognition.
Ventromedial Prefrontal Cortex (vmPFC) — Core valuation & meaning network; decides integrated subjective value (“what feels right overall”) by combining emotion, memory, and social context; dominant in resonance-based judgment.
Anterior Cingulate Cortex (ACC) — Conflict and error-monitoring network; decides when expectations fail and whether to persist, adjust, or abort a strategy; overactivation biases anxiety, underactivation biases recklessness.
Amygdala — Threat classification network; decides rapid danger vs safety tagging of stimuli, priming defensive responses; dominance biases enemy-seeking or fear-based cognition.
Periaqueductal Gray (PAG) — Defensive action execution network; decides how threat responses are physically expressed (fight, flight, freeze, shutdown) once danger is detected.
Default Mode Network (DMN) — Narrative and identity integration network; decides meaning, analogy, self-continuity, and long-range coherence; dominance biases holistic insight or rumination.
Posterior Cingulate Cortex (PCC) — Context anchoring network; decides global situational framing and worldview stability; overuse traps narratives, underuse destabilises self-context.
Temporal Association Cortex — Pattern similarity and analogy network; decides symbolic linkage across time, concepts, and experiences; dominance enables metaphorical thinking, weakness enforces literalism.
Hippocampus — Contextual memory binding network; decides whether a situation is “the same as before,” enabling learning and nuance; dysfunction causes repetition without adaptation.
Insular Cortex (Insula) — Interoceptive state-weighting network; decides how bodily signals (pain, hunger, comfort) influence cognition and choice; dominance amplifies somatic awareness or anxiety.
Primary Somatosensory Cortex (S1) — Precise bodily localisation network; decides exact spatial identification of sensation; dominant in limited-target, high-resolution cognition.
Secondary Somatosensory Cortex (S2) — Tactile meaning interpretation network; decides qualitative interpretation of bodily sensation patterns beyond location.
Cerebellum — Prediction, timing, and error-smoothing network; decides fine calibration of action and thought by predicting outcomes and correcting deviation; dysfunction causes clumsy cognition.
Basal Ganglia — Habit selection and reinforcement network; decides whether behaviour follows learned routines or updates via feedback; dominance favours efficiency over flexibility.
Dopaminergic Reward System (VTA → Nucleus Accumbens) — Motivation and future-reward forecasting network; decides drive toward exploration, optimisation, and long-term gain; imbalance produces apathy or compulsive pursuit.
Orbitofrontal Cortex (OFC) — Outcome comparison and updating network; decides when values must be revised due to changing circumstances; dysfunction causes perseveration on failing strategies.
Frontoparietal Control Network — Executive coordination network; decides how multiple variables are balanced simultaneously; dominant in systems thinking, overload leads to analysis paralysis.
Dorsal Premotor Cortex — Action sequencing network; decides ordered preparation of movements or procedural steps prior to execution.
Posterior Parietal Cortex — Structural and relational mapping network; decides spatial, quantitative, and structural relationships between elements; dominant in engineering and systems abstraction.