Darwinian Psychiatry - Hardcover

McGuire, Michael; Troisi, Alfonso

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0195116739 ISBN 13: 9780195116731

Publisher: Oxford University Press, 1998

Synopsis

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.

About this title

About the Author

Michael McGuire is at University of California, Los Angeles. Alfredo Troisi is at University of Rome.

Review

"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)

Edition details

• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Publication date: 1998
• ISBN 10: 0195116739
• ISBN 13: 9780195116731
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 360