PURPOSE OF REVIEW: The paper applies recent conceptualisations of predictive processing to the understanding of inequalities in mental health. RECENT FINDINGS: Social neuroscience has developed important ideas about the way the brain models the external world, and how the interface between cognitive and cultural processes interacts. These resonate with earlier concepts from cybernetics and sociology. These approaches could be applied to understanding some of the dynamics leading to the patterning of mental health problems in populations. SUMMARY: The implications for practice are the way such thinking might help illuminate how we think and act, and how these are anchored in the social world.