Darwinian Psychiatry / Edition 1

by Michael McGuire, Alfonso Troisi

Overview

For years, psychiatry has operated without a unified theory of behavior; instead, it has spawned a pluralism of approaches—including biomedical, psychoanalytic, behavioral, and sociocultural models—each with radically different explanations for various clinical disorders. In Darwinian Psychiatry, Michael T. McGuire and Alfonso Troisi provide a conceptual framework for integrating many features of prevailing models. Based on Darwinian theory rather than traditional approaches, the book offers clinicians a fundamentally new perspective for looking at the etiology, pathogenesis, diagnosis, and treatment of psychiatric disorders.
Writing from this innovative theoretical position, the authors discuss the origin of pathological conditions, the adaptation of symptoms and syndromes, the biological basis of social relations, and many other key concepts. This groundbreaking book will introduce those who study and are involved in the alleviation of mental suffering to an approach that will lead to radical changes in clinical practice. The authors suggest that when making diagnostic assessments, psychiatrists should evaluate not only the patients' symptoms but also their functional capacities, and that therapeutic interventions should work toward the achievement of biological goals. Providing an essential framework for understanding both everyday human behavior and a range of mental disorders, Darwinian Psychiatry will appeal to all mental health professionals and general readers interested in human psychology and behavior.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780195116731
Publisher:	Oxford University Press
Publication date:	04/16/1998
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	360
Product dimensions:	6.40(w) x 9.30(h) x 1.10(d)

About the Author

University of California, Los Angeles

University of Rome Medical School, Tor Vergata

Table of Contents

I. Introduction1. Darwinian psychiatry—the context2. Diagnosing and explaining disorders/conditionsII. An evolutionary context for disorders3. Evolutionary concepts important to psychiatry4. A theory of behavior5. Mechanisms, emotions, moods, symptoms, and affects6. Information processing7. Evolutionary models of disorders/conditions8. Regulation-dysregulation theoryIII. Disorders and conditions in evolutionary context9. Personality disorders10. Anorexia nervosa11. Schizophrenia12. Phobias13. Other conditions14. Dysthymic disorder: a study of infrastructural suboptimalityIV. Treatment in evolutionary context15. Treatment in evolutionary contextV. Conclusion16. Summary and conclusion

Editorial Reviews

"The authors are psychiatrists who have done distinguished experimental work in primatology. They summarize evolutionary influences on everyday behavior, and argue convincingly for this area as a science basic to psychiatry."—The Quarterly Review of Biology

"Darwinian Psychiatry represents a encyclopedic, ambitious and well-argued attempt to convince its readers that the field of psychiatry would benefit from the explicit incorporation of evolutionary theory, and offers nothing short of a complete reconceptualization of mental disorders. McGuire and Troisi are writers of considerable distinction in the psychiatry literature...their scholarship is unmistakable and their shared knowledge startlingly comprehensive. The overall tone of the work is relatively conversational, a style that well befits the obvious familiarity of the authors with the tenets of evolutionary theory and their knowledge of mental conditions. Well thought out, well-structured, and well written...the application of their ideas is both comparatively straightforward and appropriately provocative." — Metapsychology (Mental Help Net's Bookstore)

From the Publisher