Eva de Hullu’s book “Alles onder Controle” (Everything Under Control) has been published by Boom in June 2025. It’s currently only available in Dutch but she’s working on a translation. You can listen to the Dutch Introduction.
The Invisible Force Behind All Our Behavior
Control is much more than managing your environment or controlling your emotions: it’s the invisible force behind all our behavior. Yet psychology pays surprisingly little attention to the phenomenon of control. Understanding the mechanism of control enables us to comprehend much more – about ourselves, about others, and about the world around us.
Experiencing What You Want to Experience
Control is everywhere. We continuously arrange our lives so that we get what we need and experience what we want to experience. We wash our hands to feel clean. We read a book to relax or learn something. We greet our colleagues to maintain a good vibe in the room. Those who experience control, feel balance and resilience, and are able to handle a setback. Losing control however, is often painful. When you lose control, you might try to solve the problem by doing something differently, or restore balance by adjusting your goals. Everything Under Control discusses regulation and reorganization from the perspective of perceptual control theory. In a control system, the current experience is continuously compared with the desired situation and action is taken to reduce the difference between the two. Based on this model, this book develops a complex interplay of control systems that clearly explains how we shape the world according to our wishes. And also why we often fail to do so.
Restoring Control: Method of Levels
Eva de Hullu builds up our understanding of control step by step and shows how we organize our inner and outer worlds based on our own wishes, desires, and goals. She also explains how you can help others when they have lost control: Method of Levels is a conversational method that uses attention and curiosity to reorganize stuck goals, beliefs, and feelings to restore control from within.
A Deeper Understanding of Psychology
Examples from daily life and practice help you to effectively shape your work as a care provider with deeper understanding. This makes Everything Under Control suitable for psychologists, psychiatrists, and professionals in the business of helping people, but also for anyone who is curious about how to understand behavior from the inside-out.
Recommendation by Warren Mansell
Prof. Dr. Warren Mansell, Professor of Mental Health at Curtin University, Perth, Australia
Even though perceptual control theory remains at the fringes of mainstream science, there are many books available that introduce the theory. Yet Everything Under Control is unique: part popular science, part autobiography; part therapy manual, part textbook; part philosophy, part science. When starting to understand a scientific theory requires you to unlearn nearly everything you thought you knew about psychology, societal wellbeing and the scientific method, you need a writer like Eva to hold your hand through the experience.
Eva de Hullu has a flair for talking to a lay and professional audience about this theory in a way that takes them on a journey from private experience, through clear statements regarding fundamental laws of nature, to the intricacies of everyday life, emotions and wellbeing. Just when you think the main enlightening take home messages have been said, there are more. I am confident that no other book on this theory, in fact no other book focused on a single scientific theory per se, takes the reader to such profound insights and immediately practical implications with this level of ease and fluency.
It is not only the writing style that helps this book achieve its aims. The author brings to life the ‘eleven levels of perception’ that are key to the theory, both through her iconic drawings, and her many accessible, lived examples. By the end of the book, the reader has completed a tour of phenomenology, psychology, philosophy of science, mental health, psychotherapy, experimental methods, the principles of a good conversation, and the ingredients of a safe, flourishing society.
