Journal article
Perinatal sadness among Shuar women: support for an evolutionary theory of psychic pain
Medical anthropology quarterly, Vol.21(1), pp.22-40
03/2007
Handle:
https://hdl.handle.net/2376/113299
PMID: 17405696
Abstract
Psychiatry faces an internal contradiction in that it regards mild sadness and low mood as normal emotions, yet when these emotions are directed toward a new infant, it regards them as abnormal. We apply parental investment theory, a widely used framework from evolutionary biology, to maternal perinatal emotions, arguing that negative emotions directed toward a new infant could serve an important evolved function. If so, then under some definitions of psychiatric disorder, these emotions are not disorders. We investigate the applicability of parental investment theory to maternal postpartum emotions among Shuar mothers. Shuar mothers' conceptions of perinatal sadness closely match predictions of parental investment theory.
Metrics
10 Record Views
Details
- Title
- Perinatal sadness among Shuar women: support for an evolutionary theory of psychic pain
- Creators
- Edward H Hagen - Institute for Theoretical Biology, Humboldt University, BerlinH Clark Barrett
- Publication Details
- Medical anthropology quarterly, Vol.21(1), pp.22-40
- Academic Unit
- Anthropology, Department of
- Publisher
- United States
- Identifiers
- 99900547341001842
- Language
- English
- Resource Type
- Journal article