Good Bad Feelings: Why Evolution Allows Anxiety, Depression, and Other Mental Disorders

Mental disorders are a real scourge for our species. But why is there so much mental suffering in human life? Partly, it is because emotional states such as anxiety, bad mood and grief have been preserved and shaped by natural selection because they are useful. True, up to a certain limit. Fear helps us avoid danger – but at the cost of inevitable false alarms. Despondency allows us not to waste energy on chasing the impossible, but often develops into pathological depression. Other mental disorders, such as drug or alcohol addiction or anorexia, arise from a mismatch between the ancient settings of our body and the modern environment. There are also strong evolutionary reasons for sexual disorders and the persistence of schizophrenia genes. Drawing on illustrative cases from his own clinical practice and the discoveries of evolutionary biology, Dr. Randolph Nessey not only answers the question of why natural selection has created such a fragile human psyche, but also attempts to outline ways to alleviate this suffering, taking into account personal circumstances and individual characteristics.