Psychic Arbitrage: Theoretical Extensions — Epistemological Foundations, Taxonomic Developments, and Testable Predictions

This theoretical note presents six extensions to the Psychic Arbitrage framework (Niculescu, 2026), developed subsequent to the submission of the main manuscript. These extensions address fundamental epistemological requirements identified during continued theoretical development: the specification of the framework's proper phenomenon (i.e., the identification of the specific aspect of psychic reality that the framework isolates and that existing frameworks do not address), the deepening of the structural correspondence with the Free Energy Principle (FEP), the expansion of the psychopathology taxonomy to include a previously unaddressed clinical configuration, the reorganization of the taxonomy along a unified theoretical axis, the specification of falsifiable predictions with explicit infirmation conditions, and the differentiation from competing integrative frameworks in neuropsychoanalysis. Together, these extensions strengthen the framework's epistemological positioning as a pre-formal analytic system with stated vulnerability conditions. This document accompanies: Niculescu, L. (2026). Psychic Arbitrage: A Transactional Framework for Defense Mechanisms, Psychopathology, and AI-Mediated Therapeutic Disruption. Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.14538930 Related instrument: Niculescu, L. (2026). Psychic Arbitrage Profile Protocol (PAPP). Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.14618498