DISORDERS OR RANGES OF HUMAN DIFFERENCE

Abstract

Marco del Giudice has set himself a daunting task to write a book describing an approach to psychiatric disorders which offers a fresh understanding, with overarching ideas informed by evolutionary theory. The scholarship is very impressive, there are nearly 2500 references stretching over almost 150 pages and to underpin his arguments. He brings together ideas from many fields of research: genetics, epigenetics, physiology, brain anatomy and function, epidemiology, psychology experiments and theories, psychiatric research and more. The book starts with a brief tour of human evolution, and basic, but up to date, ideas within evolutionary theory: natural selection, gene selection, adaptation, conflict, e.g. parent offspring, sexual selection, mating strategies, group selection, cooperation, altruism and so on. The section on the "evolved mind" discusses various concepts such as motivations, executive function, and mentalising and mechanistic cognition. There is a useful summary of some key individual and sex differences. A major chapter is on life history theory and the distinction between fast and slow life histories. These concepts are applied in many of the later discussions. Richer, J.M. (2019). Disorders or Ranges of Human Difference. Human Ethology, 34, 110-114. https://doi.org/10.22330/he/34/110-114