Backfire Regime
constructoriginal
ClaimA backfire regime is a state where delivering intervention produces worse outcomes than withholding, because the intervention itself functions as an uncontrollable demand on a system that has lost capacity to process demands.
This claim fails if
If interventions delivered during verified degraded controllability states consistently produce equal or better outcomes than withholding, backfire regimes do not exist as defined.
States where delivering intervention produces worse outcomes than withholding, because the intervention itself functions as an uncontrollable demand on a system that has lost capacity to process demands.
Nearest academic equivalents
- Iatrogenic effects (medicine)
- Intervention timing effects (JITAI literature)
- Reactance (Brehm 1966)
Delta from academic usage
Formally predicted from the controllability circuit: when vmPFC-DRN gating has shifted to helplessness mode, any uncontrollable demand amplifies DRN activation. The intervention IS a stressor. Not just "bad timing" -- mechanistically specified.