Why do systems fall apart or become dysfunctional? A system can be a family, relationship, community, business, organization, society.  The human mind-brain-body is also a system. One reason dysfunction can happen is related to hierarchy and ‘signal flow’. Let’s go into both of these ideas.   Listen on Spotify Listen on iTunes Listen on Blubrry Listen on YouTube   Hierarchies exist throughout nature and throughout human society. They are something that occur because of their ability to coordinate communication and signals from lower or small subsystems to a higher level that can interact with all the subsystems, either directly or indirectly.    An example of this is the brain.  It acts as a command center that receives and coordinates all the signals of the subsystems, such as the cells and organs, that make up the human organism.  If the cells and organs weren’t able to communicate with a higher order system, there would be no coherence or organization around a central goal.   A system needs a unified goal for all the subsystems to work towards.     This higher level of ‘command’ creates a hierarchy.  This hierarchical structure has nothing to do with which system has more rights or power, it is only to serve as a mechanism for signal flow for the subsystems.  The goal of the higher level of a hierarchy is to help with the optimal functioning of the subsystems so that they can do their job - whatever that may be.  The goal of the subsystems is to serve the goal of the entire system as a whole.  In the brain, the command features are closely tied to the frontal areas of the brain, particularly the prefrontal cortex.   Hierarchies are best able to serve the system when there is efficient signal flow from subsystems to the higher levels and vice versa.   We can see dysfunction happen when the highest levels of a hierarchy are not serving the goals of the entire system have communication channels dominated by a specific subgroup/subsystem  are blocking or suppressing efficient communication and signal flow from the subsystems   An example of this often gets reflected in businesses and other organizations. This can take the form of a CEO serving only his bank account and that of his family, to the neglect of the goals of the employees - which could include their personal wellbeing, optimal brain-body functioning and psychological safety.     System suboptimization can also happen  if only one subgroup or subsystem dominates the communication channels to the central command nodes.  This can also appear in the brain as hypercoherent brainwave activity between specific subnetworks, but to the detriment of efficient communication with other networks.   In human society, the other thing that occurs alongside system suboptimization is that as a system’s signal flow becomes dysfunctional, the splits and divides between the subgroups can also become more clear.   This is because the communication patterns within subsystems are always denser and more frequent than the communication patterns betw...