From Recurrent States to Agency: Dual-Aspect Rigidity and the Coupling of State Dynamics and Recursive Revisability

Psychological change is often discussed as if insight, altered self-relation, and changes in recurrent psychological dynamics were different expressions of the same process. We argue that they should be distinguished. Building on the Resonance–Inference Model (RIM) and the Neuro-Existential Architecture System (NEAS), we propose two analytically distinguishable constraint dimensions within the broader landscape of psychological rigidity: state-dynamic rigidity, concerning the accessibility, persistence, and transition structure of recurrent experiential–behavioral configurations, and recursive rigidity, concerning the capacity of currently enacted psychological organization to become available as potentially revisable. We further hypothesize that changes in recursive self-relation and recurrent state dynamics may be partially dissociable. Their coupling is proposed to occur indirectly: recursive accessibility and possible orientational reorganization may alter action selection and person–world engagement, thereby changing subsequent evidence, learning, and future state-transition dynamics. This bridge architecture integrates dynamical, motivational, affective, inferential, self-related, and metacognitive perspectives without reducing them to a single mechanism. We specify boundary conditions, measurement implications, and falsifiable predictions that distinguish the account from existing flexibility, dynamical-systems, and process-based approaches.