Relationships and evolutionary theory: Benefits and risks for psychiatry - Randolph Nesse

Professor Randolph Nesse speaks at the ISEMPH 2024 Evolutionary Psychiatry Premeeting.
Explaining how natural selection has shaped capacities for cooperation and relationships is one of evolutionary biology's great achievements. Bringing this knowledge to bear on clinical problems offers the possibility of fundamental advances that can improve treatment. However, clinicians are vulnerable to adopting simplistic harmful schemas. The view that selfish genes make selfish people is a toxic meme that undermines the ability of individuals to have trusting relationships and the social fabric in general. The view that selection shapes altruistic tendencies because of benefits to groups is more prosocial but incorrect. Clinicians who recognize the multiple factors that have shaped capacities for exchange relationships and how they are different from relationships based on commitment will have powerful tools for a deeper understanding of relationship problems and resulting extreme emotions. However, even experts tend to adopt simple positions on controversial issues so caution before applying evolutionary explanations of social capacities in clinical settings.