The backup is active in Alzheimer's disease: a hypothesis from problem theory.

Problem theory distinguishes between six general problems of everyday life, which people work through in turn during childhood, learning to switch between them. One of them requires the protection of a cut-out and an override. People who develop Alzheimer's disease (AD), and apolipoprotein allele epsilon 4 carriers, are preoccupied with this problem, or readily switch back to it.

A right hemisphere safety backup at work: hypotheses for deep hypnosis, post-traumatic stress disorder, and dissociation identity disorder.

Problem theory points to an a priori relation between six key problems of living, to which people have adapted through evolution. Children are guided through the problems one by one, learning to switch between them automatically and unawares. The first problem of raising hope of certainty (about the environment), is dealt with in the right hemisphere (RH).

Inter-hemispheric competition relieved in both: hypotheses for autism and schizophrenia from problem theory.

A logical relationship exists among six general problems that people face in life. Using hope about something for its subjective probability, its expected likelihood, the problems form a series where the method of assessing hope changes in a simple manner from one problem to the next. The central hypothesis is that human beings exploit this.

Hemisphere specialization as an aid in early infancy.

In order that different directions of attention can be organized, they have to be labeled and assessed. A statement of a general problem can be regarded as a label for a general direction of attention. Hope about it, as the perceived probability of sufficient success, on the basis of work done, can be regarded as an assessment.

Integrative aspects of problem theory: a review of applications.

It is argued that people work on 6 interrelated general problems, called key problems, which are necessarily simply conceived and therefore open to a priori identification. Key problems demand separate attention, and, with children below 9 years of age and again between 10 and 17 years of age, and with adults in long-term groups, they receive attention 1 by 1, as focal problems, with intervening transitional phases, in a fixed sequence. Isolated societies stress 1 focal problem, and families and individuals tend to do the same.