The Interdisciplinary Handbook of Perceptual Control Theory

Dr. Mansell has written over sixty interdisciplinary publications on perceptual control theory, has convened three international conferences on PCT, and hosts a website pctweb.org that has received over 35,000 views since its inception in 2009. His work on PCT has appeared on UK national television, in science museums, and online newspaper and magazine articles. He has authored and edited various books, including: Coping with Fears and Phobias (2007), A Transdiagnostic Approach to CBT using Method of Levels Therapy (2012), Principles-Based Counselling and Psychotherapy (2015), Oxford Guide to Metaphors in CBT (2010), and The Bluffer’s Guide to Psychology (2006).

Part I

Why do we need perceptual control theory?

1. The world according to PCT

2. Understanding purposeful systems: the application

of control theory in engineering and psychology

3. The crisis in neuroscience

4. When causation does not imply correlation: robust

violations of the faithfulness axiom

Part II

Models of brain and behavior

5. Unraveling the dynamics of dyadic interactions:

perceptual control in animal contests

6. How the brain gets a roaring campfire: Structuring

for Perceptual Results

7. How the brain gets a roaring campfire: input and

output functions

8. The phylogeny, ontogeny, causation and function of

regression periods explained by reorganizations of the

hierarchy of perceptual control systems

Part III

Collective control and communication

9. Social structure and control: perceptual control theory

and the science of sociology

10. Perceptual control in cooperative interaction

11. Language and thought as control of perception

Part IV

Applications

12. Perceptions of control theory in

industrial-organizational psychology: disturbances

and counter-disturbances

13. Method of Levels Therapy

14. Robotics in the real world: the perceptual control

theory approach

15. PCT and beyond: toward a computational framework

for ‘intelligent’ communicative systems

Part V

Synthesis

16. Ten vital elements of perceptual control theory,

tracing the pathway from implicit influence to

scientific advance