Summary
Randolph Nesse, a pioneer in evolutionary psychiatry, emphasizes that mental disorders are not adaptations, even if they may offer some advantages. He argues that understanding the evolutionary origins of these disorders is crucial for proper diagnosis and treatment. Nesse believes that recognizing the complexity of mental health can lead to better insights into human vulnerability to mental disorders.
Highlights
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I found my way to a group of biologists at the Museum of Natural History who studied behavior, led by the evolutionary biologist Richard Alexander. They welcomed me saying, “As a psychiatrist, of course you must have studied the evolution of animal behavior in depth.” Uh, no, not really. They then pointed out that a full biological explanation requires describing both the mechanism and also how it was shaped by natural selection. What a huge shock to realize that my apparently superb education had ignored half of biology!
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I quickly realized that to really understand the origins of mental disorders, and to convince others about the value of evolutionary biology in psychiatry, I would first have to understand why natural selection left us vulnerable to diseases in general. It was my great privilege to work with the great biologist George Williams to write articles and a book that got evolutionary medicine going. But it took me another decade to realize that the confusion that swirls around psychiatry really does result mostly because it lacks the evolutionary foundation that the rest of medicine relies on. And it took another decade after that to see that evolution can be profoundly useful for understanding emotional disorders and the motivational structure of individual lives.
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Despite my best efforts, attempts to explain disorders as if they are adaptations is the biggest problem for evolutionary psychiatry.