Conditions

Conditions are the ways an environment can fail a Core Need. Our model names five, each with an everyday phrase.

• Absent: "it wasn't there."
• Unpredictable: "I never knew what I'd get."
• Excessive: "it was too much."
• Harmful: "it hurt me."
• Modelled: "I copied it."

The list matters because it covers people who were never harmed but still adapted. Most adaptations form in ordinary homes, schools and workplaces.

A tiny example. A close friend replies to your messages within minutes one week, then goes silent for days the next, with no pattern you can find. That is the Unpredictable condition, and adults adapt to it too. Or you raise your voice the way you once watched an uncle do it: that is Modelled.

A Condition is never the whole story. What you learned under it also depended on your nature.

Read more on How adaptation works, which links each Condition's page.