The psychopathology model (Inflexa)

The anatomy of rigidity and stagnation

If the Hexaflex represents health, its dark reverse is the model of psychological inflexibility, sometimes called "Inflexahex."

This model explains how psychological disorders arise and are maintained. Each of the six healthy points has its pathological counterpart.

In place of acceptance, we find Experiential Avoidance: the constant effort to flee from discomfort.

Instead of defusion, we find Cognitive Fusion: the state in which thoughts dominate behavior and are taken as absolute truths.

Contact with the present is replaced by the Domain of the Past and conceptualized Future (rumination and preoccupation), disconnecting us from immediate reality.

The "Self as Context" is lost in favor of Attachment to the Conceptual Self: a rigid identification with labels ("I am useless", "I am depressive").

Values are obscured by Lack of Clarity or Compliance Values (living according to what others expect or to avoid punishment), and committed action is replaced by Inaction, Impulsivity or Persistent Avoidance. When these processes interact, the person becomes trapped in a closed loop.

For example, someone who firmly believes they are "not capable" (Conceptual Self Attachment and Fusion) will avoid presenting themselves to new challenges (Avoidance and Inaction), which will prevent them from discovering what really matters to them (Lack of Values), keeping them trapped in the memory of their past failures (Past Dominance).

The Systemic Interaction of Suffering

The crucial thing about this pathological model is to understand that the processes feed back on each other.

It is not that the person has "six different problems", but that rigidity in one area spreads to the others. Consider the case of a musician suffering from stage fright.

Upon experiencing anxiety, his immediate response is to try to suppress it by drinking alcohol before going out (Experiential Avoidance).

This occurs because he is totally convinced of his thought "if I tremble, I will be laughed at" (Cognitive Fusion).

This struggle consumes so much attention that, while playing, he is not connected to the music or the audience, but monitoring his hands (Loss of Contact with the Present).

Eventually, he begins to define himself as "a failed and anxious musician" (Attachment to the Conceptual Self), forgets that his love of music was to convey beauty (Disconnection from Values), and finally stops scheduling concerts (Inaction).

Treatment, therefore, can enter through any of the vertices to break this cycle: if we can get him to accept the tremor (Acceptance), perhaps he will regain the connection to his value of artistic expression and return to performing, weakening the fusion with his "failed" label.

Summary

The "Inflexahex" represents the anatomy of psychological rigidity and explains the maintenance of disorders, where every healthy point has a pathological counterpart, such as experiential avoidance or cognitive fusion.

In this state, the individual is trapped in a closed loop where past dominance, lack of value clarity and inaction replace vitality, generating stagnation.

Crucially, these pathological processes feed back systemically; rigidity in one area spreads to others, creating a cycle of suffering where the attempted solution often makes the problem worse.