Description
Evolutionary Psychiatry challenges a medical model which has supplied few effective answers to long-standing conundrums. A comprehensive introduction to the new science of Darwinian Psychiatry, this second edition includes important fresh material on a number of disorders, along with an entirely new chapter on research
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. Particularly important are the theories Stevens and Price propose to account for the worldwide existence of mood disorders and schizophrenia, as well as offering solutions for such puzzles as paedophilia, sado masochism and the function of dreams.
Readily accessible to both the specialist and non-specialist reader, Evolutionary Psychiatry describes in detail the disorders and conditions commonly encountered in psychiatric practice and shows how evolutionary theory can account for their biological origins and functional nature.
