General Preface: The Point is to Understand the World, Not to Change It

The Main Thread of the Three Books: From Biology to Sociality

Our cognitive framework is built upon a simple yet powerful logical chain:

Consciousness → Mental Disorders → Economy and Society

The starting point of this chain is human biological nature. Consciousness is not a supernatural, mysterious phenomenon, but the result of billions of years of evolutionary agency in life—from single-celled organisms seeking benefits and avoiding harm, to signal transmission in the nervous system, to the structural emergence of the brain, and finally to the reflective consciousness unique to humans. This is the core concept expounded in The Structural Evolutionary Paradigm of Life Agency in Consciousness.

Mental disorders, on the other hand, are precisely the "exposure of vulnerability" along this evolutionary chain. When genetic mutations, developmental abnormalities, metabolic imbalances, and socio-environmental pressures break through the threshold of compensation within the four-level interaction, a mental disorder occurs. It is not "failing to look on the bright side," nor is it "weakness of will," and it is certainly not a "moral defect"—it is the inevitable expression of biology under specific conditions. This is the core to be expounded in this book—The Principles of Interaction Among Genetic Mutation, Development, Metabolism, and Socio-Environmental Factors in Mental Disorders.

Economy and society serve as the macro-environmental container for mental disorders. The $F_{damage}$ function reveals how the coupling tension between intraspecific structure and technological/tool level generates attrition, which is ultimately borne by individuals at the cost of their mental health. When $W$ (actual individual retention) approaches $L$ (the survival red line), $F_{damage}$ tends toward infinity; at this point, mental disorders are no longer individual issues but systemic ones. This is the core revealed in The Price Loss-Gain Factor.

The Position of This Book: The Intermediate Link

The study of mental disorders occupies the intermediate link between "consciousness" and "economy and society":

• Downward, it connects to the biological foundation of consciousness—how the structure and function of the brain determine our perception, thinking, and emotion.
• Upward, it connects to the macro-forces of the social environment—how family, institutions, and culture are "written into" the brain through epigenetic and stress mechanisms.

This is the four-level interaction cognitive framework we propose:

1. Genetic Mutation Level: Genes provide the "undercoat" of susceptibility, but genes are not destiny.
2. Developmental Level: The neurodevelopmental process from embryo to adulthood is the critical window during which genetic susceptibility is "expressed" as brain structure.
3. Metabolic Level: The dynamic equilibrium of neurotransmitters, neuromodulators, and metabolites forms the molecular foundation of brain function.
4. Socio-Environmental Level: Family, school, social institutions, and cultural norms determine whether vulnerability is triggered into clinical illness.

The relationship among the four levels is not one of simple cause and effect, but rather of interaction—genetics influences development, development determines the foundation of metabolism, metabolism is regulated by the social environment, and the social environment in turn feeds back into gene expression through epigenetics.

Relationship Among the Three Books

Three books, three levels: society, consciousness, and the neural. Together, they constitute a map of understanding from the outside in, from the collective to the individual.

• $F_{damage}$: The Price Loss-Gain Factor Theory: Understanding humanity, society, and history—why does the same technological progress bring prosperity to some societies while bringing disaster to others? The answer lies not in technology itself, but in intraspecific structure.

• An Introduction to the Structural Evolutionary Paradigm of Life Agency in Consciousness: Understanding the origin of one's own thoughts—consciousness is not a mysterious soul, but a structural function formed by life during evolution to process internal and external information. This book pulls the question of "why do I think this way?" from philosophical speculation back into an explicable biological framework.

• The Principles of Interaction Among Genetic Mutation, Development, Metabolism, and Socio-Environmental Factors in Mental Disorders (this book): Building a physiological foundation for scientifically understanding human neural centers, neurometabolism, psychology, and behavior—when structures fail, how does consciousness become dysregulated? How does behavior become abnormal? This book establishes a four-level interaction explanatory framework spanning from genetic mutations to the social environment.

The Point is to Understand

As the title of the general preface states: The point is to understand the world, not to change it.

The understanding of mental disorders is not aimed at "curing" everyone—that is neither possible nor necessary. Rather, it is to enable everyone troubled by mental disorders, as well as their families, friends, doctors, and policymakers, to make judgments and choices based on science rather than prejudice.

Understanding heritability prevents us from blaming bipolar disorder on a "fickle personality." Understanding developmental windows reveals that there is a golden period for intervening in childhood trauma. Understanding metabolic mechanisms makes it clear that drug therapy is not a "dependency" but a "necessity." Understanding the social environment exposes the systemic harm inflicted on mental health by a culture of "family-state isomorphism."

Understanding itself is the beginning of change.

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This general preface is shared by all three books; for a detailed discussion, see 《00-General Preface: The Point is to Understand the World, Not to Change It》

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