Ed Pollak writes: >You might check out the evolutionary/sociobiological approaches >to depression. e.g., see http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=depressions-evolutionary http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/02/26/the-evolution-of-depression/
Jerry Coyne has made some cogent criticisms of the Andrews and Thomson evolutionary adaptation theory of depression: http://whyevolutionistrue.wordpress.com/2009/08/29/is-depression-an-evolutionary-adaptation-part-1/ http://whyevolutionistrue.wordpress.com/2009/08/30/is-depression-an-evolutionary-adaptation-part-2/ Coyne also wrote this article in the Psychiatric Times: The Evolutionary Calculus of Depression http://www.psychiatrictimes.com/depression/content/article/10168/1575333 republished on his website: http://whyevolutionistrue.wordpress.com/2010/05/27/is-depression-an-adaptation/ Coyne's final article on this reports that Andrews and Thomson have now responded in the journal with a piece called “Coyne battles Darwin, many other evolutionary biologists—and himself”, but the link brings up "temporarily unavailable". http://whyevolutionistrue.wordpress.com/2010/10/22/is-depression-an-evolved-adaptation-envoi/ A cogent comment to the latest of Coyne's pieces on his blog: "As a past sufferer of light depression I wonder seriously how anybody could argue that depression promotes analytical thought." Allen Esterson Former lecturer, Science Department Southwark College, London allenester...@compuserve.com http://www.esterson.org ------------------------------------------------------------------------- ----- Re:[tips] depression as "crutch" Pollak, Edward (Retired) Fri, 09 Mar 2012 06:49:53 -0800 You might check out the evolutionary/sociobiological approaches to depression. e.g., see http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=depressions-evolutionary and http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/02/26/the-evolution-of-depression/. If your student decides it's relevant, she can dig deeper. Ed Edward I. Pollak, Ph.D. Professor Emeritus of Psychology West Chester University of Pennsylvania http://home.comcast.net/~epollak/ --- You are currently subscribed to tips as: arch...@jab.org. To unsubscribe click here: http://fsulist.frostburg.edu/u?id=13090.68da6e6e5325aa33287ff385b70df5d5&n=T&l=tips&o=16586 or send a blank email to leave-16586-13090.68da6e6e5325aa33287ff385b70df...@fsulist.frostburg.edu
