![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() Similar ideas have surfaced before, in different contexts. Intrinsic vulnerabilities in the human mind could be a trade-off for optimizing unrelated features. Furthermore, like the legs of thoroughbred racehorses - selected for length, but tending towards weakness - some dysfunctional aspects of mental function might have originated with selection for unrelated traits, such as cognitive capacity. In his view, the roots of mental illnesses, such as anxiety and depression, lie in essential functions that evolved as building blocks of adaptive behavioural and cognitive function. Into that alarming context enters the thought-provoking Good Reasons for Bad Feelings, in which evolutionary psychiatrist Randolph Nesse offers insights that radically reframe psychiatric conditions. And molecular medicine, which has seen huge success in treating diseases such as cancer, has failed to stem the tide. In North America and Europe alone, mental illness accounts for up to 40% of all years lost to disability. Globally, the burden of depression and other mental-health conditions is on the rise. Good Reasons for Bad Feelings: Insights From the Frontier of Evolutionary Psychiatry Randolph M. Candid Portrait of a Woman on a Street Corner by Trent Parke (2013). ![]()
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