Textbook of Evolutionary Psychiatry and Psychosomatic Medicine: The Origins of Psychopathology

Psychiatry and Psychosomatic Medicine are concerned with medical conditions affecting brain, mind and behaviour in manifold ways. Traditional approaches have focused on a restricted array of potential causes of psychiatric and psychosomatic conditions - including adverse experiences such as
trauma, neglect or abuse, genetic vulnerability and epigenetic regulation of gene expression. Whilst essential for the understanding of mental disorders, these approaches have disregarded important questions such as why the human mind is vulnerable to dysfunction at all.

The Textbook of Evolutionary Psychiatry and Psychosomatic Medicine updates and expands on the original Textbook of Evolutionary Psychiatry (OUP, 2008) to provide answers to these questions by emphasising an evolutionary perspective on psychiatric and psychosomatic conditions. It explains how the
human brain/mind has been shaped by natural and sexual selection; why adaptations to environmental conditions in our evolutionary past may nowadays work in suboptimal ways; and how human cognition, emotions, and behaviour can be scientifically framed to improve our understanding of how people try to
attain important biosocial goals pertaining to one's status in society, mating, eliciting and providing care, and maintaining rewarding relationships.

The evolutionary topics relevant to the understanding of psychiatric and psychosomatic conditions include the concepts of genetic plasticity, life history theory, stress regulation and immunological aspects. In addition, it is argued that an evolutionary framework is also necessary to understand how
psychotherapy and psychopharmacology work to improve the lives of patients with psychiatric and psychosomatic disorders.

The Textbook of Evolutionary Psychiatry and Psychosomatic Medicine is a valuable text for all students of Psychology, Medicine, and Psychotherapy who seek an understanding of the evolutionary issues surrounding health and disease.


Author: Martin Brune
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
Published: 12/29/2015
Pages: 448
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 1.90lbs
Size: 9.60h x 6.70w x 1.10d
ISBN: 9780198717942

About the Author

Martin Brune, Professor of Psychiatry & Head of the Division of Cognitive Neuropsychiatry and Psychiatric Preventive Medicine, LWL University Hospital Bochum, Department of Psychiatry, Psychotherapy and Preventive Medicine, Ruhr-University Bochum, Germany

Martin Brune was born in Dortmund, Germany, in 1962. He graduated in medicine at the Westphalian Wilhelms University in Munster in 1988. He completed his neurology training in 1993, and his psychiatry training in 1995. His subsequent training included a Visiting Research Scientist fellowship at the Centre for the Mind, a joint venture of the Australian National University and University of Sydney. He is currently Professor of Psychiatry and Head of the Division of Cognitive Neuropsychiatry and Psychiatric Preventive Medicine at the LWL University-Hospital, Ruhr-University Bochum, Germany.

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