Feedback cyclesare cyclic patterns of organisation which are used by living systems, such as our body, to organise themselves. It is a process of referring back to the starting point during any process of change in order to integrate whatever is new or different, harmoniously into the original organization.
In more scientific language we could say that feedback happens in any system where the result of a change becomes a signal which then modifies and directs the following adaptation. So, every action or change will have a direction which was determined by the qualities or location of what was already there. This sets boundaries to the amount of change which is allowed because there is a dynamic, but consistent identity created by adherence to an optimal deviation. For example the amount of alcohol we take in will cause an optimal deviation of drunkenness after which our soaked brain will cause us to pass out and stop drinking. Feedback cycles can be negative, which means that, as in the alcohol example above, they tend to bring the results of the change back to an inherent and necessary state of balance. They can also be positive, where they strengthen the change and incorporate the result into the identity in order to develop more inclusive cycles and an expanded overall identity. Developing immunity to an infection is an example of positive feedback. ‘Positive’ and ‘negative’ thus have nothing to do with good or bad consequences,only with decreasing or slowing (down-regulating) a process on the one hand and increasing or stepping up (up-regulating) a process on the other hand.
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