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Quick guide to PCT

Perceptual Control Theory (PCT) has been around for over 50 years, leaving a trail of papers, books, websites, posts, conversations, videos all over the web. This is a quick guide to get started with the most basic materials: introductory texts, books, demonstrations, papers, websites and finding others interested in PCT. Welcome! [...]
PCT in 11 steps - introduction by Bill Powers

Control is a process of acting on the world we perceive to make it the way we want it to be, and to keep it that way. Examples of control: standing upright; walking; steering a car; scrambling eggs; scratching an itch; knitting socks; singing a tune. Extruding a pseudopod to absorb a nanospeck of food (all organisms control, not only human beings). The smallest organisms control by biochemical means, bigger ones by means of a nervous system. [...]
A simple introduction to PCT

A simple start… PCT stands for Perceptual Control Theory. Big words, eh? The ‘big idea’ behind PCT is simple but don’t be surprised if it takes a while to get your head around. This is it…. ‘Behaviour is the control of perception’ That’s it. Or more simply, we do things to get what we want – now that sounds too simple! Let’s take it a step at a time… [...]
Once around the loop

Elements of the control loop have been labeled slightly different by different people at different times and for different purposes, whether for a very plain explanation or for more mathematical treatment of the physical functions. Dag Forssell describes the elements of the control loop step by step, as an introduction to the basics of PCT. [...]

Newsletter

July 6, 2023

Welcome to the Control Loop – the IAPCT newsletter. This newsletter shares updates on the latest developments in Perceptual Control [...]
New website

April 23, 2022

We proudly present to you our new IAPCT website. This site is build in wordpress by Eva de Hullu and [...]

Politics and Philosophy – a PCT introduction

January 30, 2022

PCT takes a strongly scientific approach to human nature. It proposes that people and other living systems are purposeful – and that the systems that are responsible for purposeful action are explainable in mechanistic terms. […]

Economics & Marketing

To manage a successful business, you need to know what people want, how your business is perceived, and how to deal with people. It’s ripe for a PCT approach! […]

mental health

Interventions for Mental Health Problems

January 30, 2022

When people find themselves struggling control has been disrupted. It is the loss of control not control, therefore, that is the problem when people are psychologically distressed. […]

Psychology

January 30, 2022

In explaining how living things control their perception, PCT is clearly highly relevant to psychology. Contemporary articles are making the case to the wider establishment that closed-loop, circular causality is much closer to how living systems actually function than the approach researchers still use. […]

Law

January 30, 2022

At present, the application of PCT to Law is at its early stages. Hugh Gibbons is one exception. He has co-authored a biological model of human rights based around the tenets of PCT and he also illustrates a case using PCT in this book, “The Death of Jeffrey Stapleton”, published online. […]

Robotics & Artificial Intelligence

January 30, 2022

PCT is emerging as a force in robotics. PCT lends itself well to the fields of artificial intelligence and robotics because it provides an exact mathematical framework to model psychological processes. […]

Education

January 30, 2022

Education is about more than teaching. Within education we need to know how to motivate students, how can we maximise the degree to which people learn, and often, how do we manage students or pupils when they don’t want to learn, or they disrupt others? […]

Biology and Neuroscience

Bill Powers developed PCT with biology in mind. We can split the relevance of PCT into two parts – function and structure. […]

Film, Media & Literature

Spiritual truths, 21st Century Renaissance, Computer Games, Pop and Rock Music, & more! […]

A Transdiagnostic Approach to CBT using Method of Levels Therapy: Distinctive Features (CBT Distinctive Features)

December 11, 2022

Warren Mansell, Timothy A. Carey, and Sara J. Tai Routledge; 1st edition (November 27, 2012) Book description Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) is the treatment of choice for most mental health problems. Each different problem is […]

Doing Research on Purpose

Richard S. Marken (2014) The core of the book are six papers by Dr. Richard S. Marken which have been published in peer reviewed journals over the past decade explaining why Perceptual Control Theory (PCT) […]

People as Living Things. The Psychology of Perceptual Control

Philip J. Runkel “I started reading your book to see whatever you have to say about systems. Then I really got fascinated by your book and read it from start to finish. Very impressive! And […]

Principles-Based Counselling and Psychotherapy
A Method of Levels approach

December 11, 2022

Timothy A. Carey, Warren Mansell, and Sara J. Tai 2015, Routledge. ISBN 9780415738781 Book Description Many current approaches to the treatment of psychological problems focus on specific disorders and techniques that are purported to be […]

Ways of Learning and Knowing: The Epistemology of Education

Hugh G. Petrie “For most of his career, Hugh was way ahead of his time. His papers in this volume still are. The role of the evolutionary process of blind variation and selective retention in […]

The Method of Levels— How to do Psychotherapy Without Getting in the Way

Timothy A. Carey “I’ve just finished the Method of Levels, and I’m astonished, delighted, and inspired. I was a psychotherapist for many years, using a variety of approaches (predominantly Gestalt Therapy, several versions of family […]

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