The Hidden Benefits of Disorder A Perfect Mess:

What is the mind, such that it breaks down in the ways that it does? The standard tack in evolutionary psychiatry, the branch of evolutionary psychology that deals with mental disorders, is to explain particular disorders (or occasionally symptoms) in terms of hidden benefits.* We saw one example in the first chapter, the somewhat dubious suggestion that schizophrenia might have been selected for by natural selection because of a purported benefit that visions conveyed to tribal shamans, but there are many others. Agoraphobia has been viewed as a "potentially adaptive consequence of repeated panic attacks," and anxiety has been interpreted as a way of "altering our thinking, behavior, and physiology in advantageous ways." Depression, meanwhile, allegedly evolved as a way of allowing individuals to "accept defeat... and accommodate to what would otherwise be unacceptable low social rank." If you're like me, you won't find these examples particularly compelling. Were schizophrenics really more likely than other people to become shamans? Were those who became shamans more successful than their non-schizophrenic counterparts in producing viable offspring? Even if they were, are shamans prevalent enough in history to explain why at least 1 in every 100 humans suffers from the disorder? The depression theory initially seems more promising; as the au *Another strand of evolutionary psychology emphasizes the extent to which current environments differ from those of our ancestors. As Kurt Vonnegut Ir. (who before he became a novelist studied anthropology) put it, "It's obvious through the human experience that extended families and tribes are terribly important ...»