Evolutionary Psychiatry, Second Edition: A New Beginning

by John Price, Anthony Stevens, John Price

Book Overview

Challenging a medical model which has supplied few effective answers to long-standing conundrums, Evolutionary Psychiatry proposes a new conceptual framework for psychiatry based on Darwinian theory.

Anthony Stevens and John Price argue that psychiatric symptoms are manifestations of ancient adaptive strategies which are no longer necessarily appropriate but which can best be understood and treated in an evolutionary and developmental context...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0415219795
• ISBN13: 9780415219792
• Release Date: May 2000
• Publisher: Routledge
• Length: 328 Pages
• Weight: 0.55 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 6.2" x 9.4"

Customer Reviews

Do youself a favour and read it.

For any psychiatrist seeking ultimate explainations you need to read this. Finially I read a book that offers something more than dry biology or wolly social theory. This theory offers a robust framework for organising thoughts. I really connected with the idea of a triune brain which seems to mirror Freud's ideas. Some parts seem more solid than others but it demonstrates connections between various areas of psychiatry and has a unifying quality, i.e it adds rather than replace. If you turn up at the office each day just to earn money and prestige then don't waste your time or money otherwise buy and read it

Good book to read if you are interested in evolutionary psychiatry

Evolutionary Psychiatry: A New Beginning is a thoughtful and systematic discussion of main psychiatric concepts approached from evolutionary perspective. The book is written by two psychiatrists and Oxford graduates with a life-long interest in evolutionary psychiatry. In order to understand this book you must be familiar fairly well with the psychiatric terms and concepts. The second requirement is being familiar with the modern theory of evolution. It is unfortunate, in my opinion, that this book does not contain any meaningful discussion of modern evolutionary concepts. Evolutionary Psychiatry: A New Beginning is a fairly advanced scientific text, which is structured as a psychiatric textbook. This book, however, is not a textbook of evolutionary psychiatry. The theories described in this book are either developed or supported by Drs. Stevens and Price. Other ideas are, at best, mentioned in passing. The book is, therefore, necessarily biased. The authors mentioned that they were criticized for trying to jump ahead of the main pack of researchers. Although the contributions of Drs. Stevens and Price to the field are substantial, there may be some truth in those allegations. Writing a textbook requires a certain critical mass of knowledge on the subject to become commonly accepted, if not indisputable. Evolutionary psychology and psychiatry have not amassed the necessary amount of accepted facts and theories yet. The other reason why evolutionary psychiatry remains largely speculative is that the very scientific basis of it - the modern evolutionary theory - is far from having certain answers to too many questions (for example, T. J. Crow's theory of schizophrenia and language development is based on the controversial evolutionary theory of punctuated equilibria). Also, the reader must keep in mind that evolutionary theory (especially the ideas of group selection) as related to medical science has been developing very rapidly in the last several years. One of the main original contributions claimed by the authors is their group-splitting theory of schizophrenia. Readers should be aware that there are several other equally interesting and convincing, in my opinion, theories of schizophrenia development: there are individual selection theories which explain the origin of schizophrenia as an unfortunate by-product of the development of human cognition, creativity, and language; there is even a theory which explains schizophrenia-related personality traits as valuable not for group-splitting, but for group-sustaining function (shamanism) - quite the opposite conclusion! Unfortunately, the appearance of this book is very misleading. A stylized portrait of Charles Darwin and pictures of a gorilla and a Rolex watch on the book's canary-yellow cover do not convey the seriousness of the text. I can understand why some people, deceived by its frivolous appearance, mistake this book for a pop-psychology manual and are disappointed by the content.

Toward Objective Psychiatry

This book is an exciting attempt to lay the groundwork for a new, Darwinian science of psychiatry. It clearly shows that most if not all psychiatric disorders can be understood in terms of rank and status deficits.

Exceptional and very rare scholarly work

It is an exceptional and very rare scholarly work of incredible science that tries to avoid human biases that can easily creep into the evaluation of psychoanalysis, psychotherapy, and other therapies. As other good reviewers have said this book is very comprehensive and written for the advanced reader but it is a MUST for ALL and should be mandatory reading for any progressive school or person. The book discusses several human brain conditions from anxiety all to way to schizophrenia and discusses their definition, diagnosis, origins, prevalence, reasons for existing, etc.... What I specifically noted about this book, apart from all the good that has been written, is its attempt to remove, as much as possible, human biases in the science of psychology and psychiatry and to just state "Just the facts mam". They even admit to the pitfalls of the traditional fields of psychology and psychiatry (e.g. psychoanalysis). A MUST for those wanting to move on beyond the traditional psychobable and self-help; towards real science.An extremely interesting book detailing evolutionary human behavior. Covers a very wide range from the history of evolutionary thinking to the latest views. Includes: kin selection, friendship, family, group, and tribal behavioral dynamics as viewed from an evolutionary point of view.For further reading:The Moral Animal : The New Science of Evolutionary Psychology by Robert WrightCharles Darwin by John BowlbyDarwinian Psychiatry by Michael T. McGuire, Alfonso Troisi