text: While it seems obvious that controlling bodily variables and 
  achieving goals are crucial for survival, this perspective poses a 
  fundamental challenge. In control theory and active inference, 
  “controlling” the body ensures that the body generates the pre- 
  ferred outcomes with high (hedonic or pragmatic) value, e.g. safe 
  levels for thirst and fatigue. This idea applies naturally to many 
  of our activities that pursue some form of biologically adaptive 
  function or well-being, such as ensuring that we keep our bodies 
  healthy and consume good food (Sterling and Eyer 1988, Sterling 
  2012). However, it fails to explain why we engage in some activi- 
  ties that are apparently maladaptive and contradict our primary 
  biological imperative to ensure body health. Perhaps the most 
  puzzling examples are pathological behaviors (e.g. non-suicidal 
  self-harm or starvation), which are common across psychopatho- 
  logical conditions. In these cases, the control exerted over the 
  body and its sensations might serve the purpose of generating out- 
  comes with high (hedonic or pragmatic) values that nevertheless 
  run against our homeostatic and survival imperatives (e.g. pain 
  and excessive levels of hunger). 