Stephen Porges’s polyvagal theory proposes to integrate various scientific disciplines such as anatomy, physiology, psychophysiology, evolutionary and developmental biology, social sciences and psychotherapy together with special evolutionary features of the vagus nerve in mammals putatively claimed by polyvagal conjectures. This specifically involves linking neuroanatomical hypotheses about the vagus nerve with social and psychological concepts, especially regarding socioemotional behavior and conditions of extreme stress. These concepts have particularly found increasing popularity among trauma therapists, and have sometimes been described as groundbreaking, as in the last issue of this journal (Ackermann, 2024; Grassmann, 2024; Rahm & Meggyesy, 2024). However, there is a broad state-of-the-knowledge consensus among experts that the fundamental physiological hypotheses of the polyvagal theory are untenable and must be considered largely refuted. Furthermore, the major psychological constituents of polyvagal theory – attachment, co-regulation, social engagement, and intero ceptive processes beyond conscious awareness – each predate polyvagal speculations by decades; there is also a depth of thought and literature readily available that does not require physiological justifications for their uses in psychology or psychotherapy. For those desiring a more biological understanding of these processes, there are other models of explanation, integrating the entire nervous system, that correspond with current understanding of body and mind. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]