A prime criterion for the diagnosis of mental disorders is the identification of maladaptive patterns, emergent from the complex systems of psyche. This thesis posits "stuckness" as an archetypal pattern manifesting from a systems complex processes. Stuckness is defined as a pattern having significant qualities of meaningless repetition, insatiability, isolative autonomy, and resistance to change.

Applying an interdisciplinary and alchemical hermeneutic methodology, stuckness is qualitatively explored within the landscape of both systems theory and in Tower mythos, where system's processes were found to be allegorically reflected, and where stuckness was revealed specifically in the image of the Prison Tower. Underlying issues such as separation, predictability, risk, and need for certainty are addressed in terms of an identified system's (one with agency) ability to make choices that foster or stymie growth. This is followed by an evaluation of the modern financial system, cancer, addiction, and trauma as stuckness paradigms.