MENTAL HEALTH AND SOCIAL CONFLICT: AN EVOLUTIONARY APPROACH

Kristen L Syme

Evolutionary perspectives provide ultimate-level explanations for human health and behavior that complement physiological, developmental, and psychological explanations. One of the major insights of evolutionary applications to health and behavior is that many painful or unpleasant conditions are adaptive defenses that, in part, function by way of being aversive. Vomiting, coughing, and fever arise to combat infections. Pain alerts organisms to tissue damage. Aversive emotions such as anger, disgust, and sadness signal poor social and environmental conditions. This collection of research explores if some of the conditions classified by western medicine as ‘mental disorders’ are also adaptations. The first research paper tests a model of non-fatal suicidal behavior that frames it as a costly signal of apology. This is an expansion of the bargaining model that posits that suicidal behavior is a costly signal of need. We found mixed support for this model using data on suicidal behavior from the Human Relations Area Files. The second paper is a theoretical review paper that argues that mental health should be a key area of research in biological anthropology. Combining insights informed by evolutionary, genetic, and developmental data and perspectives, we outline a provisional schema for conceptualizing mental disorders that identifies two broad classes: one class that represents true dysfunctions and another class that represents states that are de-valued but are not genuinely pathological. The third paper investigates the spectrum of behavioral responses to parent-child conflict among Chon Chuuk adolescents and young adults living in the Portland, OR area. Parent-child conflict is a common cause of suicide death in this population. We found that depressive and suicidal behaviors likely exist on a spectrum of withdrawal responses. Severe conflicts associated with abuse and labor exploitation were associated with costlier strategies of withdrawal such as running away. These findings have local and global implications for understanding the causes of suicidal behavior. The proposed framework of mental health aims to account for the full range of human cultural and biological variation. This collection provides evidence that some of the conditions that western medicine classifies as ‘diseases’ are adaptive, but aversive responses to social conflict.

MENTAL HEALTH AND SOCIAL CONFLICT: AN EVOLUTIONARY APPROACH

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