Evolutionary Psychoanalysis: a primer and case study
Everyone is born with a different configuration of three mentalities, and mental health is a balance between all three.
Everyone is born with a different configuration of three mentalities, and mental health is a balance between all three.
Humans are unique in that both sexes have both motivations simultaneously: all of us both desire beauty and desire to be desired for being, acting, or wearing something beautiful. We Homo sapiens compete with bonobos as the primate species that most desire one another.
How much more majesty there is in the vision that the unique aspect of our nature is animated not by tooth and claw, but rather by our tribe’s ancient mission to transform the power of aggression into the bounty of communion.
Sensitize yourself to the gracefulness in their manner that relentlessly draws all of us together to make us vulnerable to this pestilence.
In spite of centuries of traps, poisons and fumigations, no pied piper has ever managed to eradicate this most perseverant of pests.
In February, I awoke from a nightmare with a vision that the country, without anyone realizing it, had taken on the orange coloration produced by DJT’s facial tanning lotion.
We would still be competing for dominance over our cousins in our African refuges
Leavened by fresh ideas, vivid clinical vignettes, and narratives of the emotional life of our ancient human ancestors
The same experiences of mental illness stigmatized through the ages become ancient beacons illuminating a fresh and uplifting vision of Who We Are.
The mentally ill should be honored for paying the price for our extraordinary mental capacities.
CREDITS: (GRAPHIC) A. CUADRA/SCIENCE; EUROPE’S LOST FRONTIERS PROJECT/EUROPEAN RESEARCH COUNCIL; (PHOTOS, LEFT TO RIGHT) NATIONAL MUSEUM OF ANTIQUITIES (ROM) LEIDEN (1); MANON BRUININGA Article by Andrew Curry, Science 31 Jan 2020: Vol. 367, Issue 6477, pp. 499-503
Justice is the one virtue indispensable to productive social engagement because justice is the collective instinct naturally selected to allow the benefits of productive social engagement to take root and blossom
While I can only imagine watching the early hominins from afar, I can easily place myself among these early Homo people. Crouching in a circle, we are all glancing back and forth, not merely imitating one another’s work, but watching for strokes made with the authority of how it should be and always had been …
From: January 10, 2020 issue of Science; GRAPHIC: N. DESAI/SCIENCE FROM B. BRASSEUR For outstanding movies of ancient migrations: click here
HOW COULD YOU BE SO ANGRY AT ME
Like the shadows in Plato’s cave, the genes, chemistry, and cognitive computations inside the brain are diffuse reflections from the evolution of emotions and motivations “outside” in the theater of human minds interacting with human minds.
As a psychiatrist, over the course of many decades treating patients with severe mental illnesses, I have wondered why humans are plagued with these problems. My explorations led me to develop the theory I present in this essay. The essence of my theory is that mental illnesses are among the many unfortunate side effects of …
I have written a book that describes my version of human nature and has many “moving parts,” but writing it was the easy, fun part. After you finish writing a book, you have to come up with an “elevator” description (short enough to get through during the ride). The main task is to refrain from …
The proposal in this book that I am most adamant about is that justice is a collective human instinct (in addition to our individual ape instincts to dominate). Justice is not just something we dreamed up as Yuval Harari would have us believe in his book, Sapiens. Justice has been naturally selected over millions of …