Why We Get Sick (44 page)

17
The work on human birth is in a paper presented by Wenda Trevathan at the February 1993 American Academy of Sciences meeting in Boston. Also see her book
Human Birth: An Evolutionary Perspective
(Hawthorne, N.Y.: Aldine de Gruyter, 1987).

18
The work on the role of oxytocin in bonding in sheep is by E. B. Keverne et al. in
Science
, 219:81–83 (1983).

19
We got our information on the Mozarts’ family tragedies mainly from pages 98–102 of
Mozart in Vienna 1781–1791
by Volkmar Braunbehrens (New York: Grove Weidenfeld, 1989).

20
On jaundice in the newborn, see John Brett and Susan Niermeyer’s article in
Medical Anthropology Quarterly
, 4:149–61 (1990).

21
Defective color discrimination and other visual impairments from exposure to round-the-clock bright light in infancy are discussed by I. Abramov et al. in
Journal of the American Optometry Association
, 56:614–19(1985).

22
On babies’ crying, see R. G. Barr’s “The Early Crying Paradox: A Modest Proposal,”
Human Nature, 1
(4):355–89 (1990).

23
On SIDS, see James J. McKenna’s “An Anthropological Perspective on the Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS): The Role of Parental Breathing Cues and Speech Breathing Adaptations,”
Medical Anthropology
, 10:9–54 (1986).

24
On parent-offspring conflict, see the Trivers citations for pp. 195–99. Also see pp. 55–58 and 234–35 of Martin Daly and Margo Wilson’s
Sex, Evolution, and Behavior
, 2nd ed. (Boston: Willard Grant Press, 1983).

Cases are composites to protect confidentiality.

The Moral Animal
by Robert Wright (New York: Pantheon Books, 1994) offers an excellent introduction to evolutionary psychology.

A fine overview of work on evolution and psychiatry is Brant Wenegrat’s
Sociobiological Psychiatry: A New Conceptual Framework
(Lexington, Mass.: Lexington Books, 1990). Forthcoming is
Evolutionary Psychiatry
, by Michael McGuire and Alfonso Troisi. For an excellent introduction to animal behavior, see John Alcock’s
Animal Behavior: An Evolutionary Approach
(Sunderland, Mass.: Sinauer, 1993). For excellent introductions to socio-biology, see R. D. Alexander’s
Darwinism and Human Affairs
(Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1979); R. Dawkins’
The Selfish Gene
(New York: Oxford Univ. Press, 1976); E. O. Wilson’s
Sociobiology
(Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard Univ. Press, 1975); E. O. Wilson’s
On Human Nature
(Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard Univ. Press, 1978); and R. Trivers’
Social Evolution
(Menlo Park, Calif.: Benjamin/Cummings, 1985). For recent progress in evolutionary psychology, see
The Adapted Mind
, cited for p. 320.

1
For the review that documents and emphasizes the medical orientation in current psychiatry, see Robert Michaels and Peter M. Marzuk in
New England Journal of Medicine, 329:552–60
and 628–38(1993).

2
For reviews of evolutionary approaches to emotions, see R. M. Nesse’s “Evolutionary Explanations of Emotions,”
Human Nature
, 1:261–89 (1990); R. Plutchik and H. Kellerman’s
Theories of Emotion
, vol. 1 (Orlando, Fla.: Academic, 1980); Paul Ekman’s “An Argument for Basic Emotions,”
Cognition and Emotion
, 6:169–200 (1992); Robert L. Trivers’s “Sociobiology and Politics,” in
Sociobiology and Human Politics
, edited by E. White (Toronto: Lexington, 1981); John Tooby and Leda Cosmides’s article in
Ethology and Sociobiology
, 11:375–424 (1990); R. Thornhill and N. W. Thornhill’s chapter in
Sociobiology and the Social Sciences
, edited by R. Bell (Lubbock, Tex.: Texas Tech Univ. Press, 1989); and E. O. Wilson’s
Sociobiology
(Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1975).

3
For a recent discussion on trade-offs between avoiding predation and other values, see A. Bouskila and D. T. Blumstein’s article in
American Naturalist
, 139:161–76 (1992).

4
Walter B. Cannon’s classic is
Bodily Changes in Pain, Hunger, Fear, and Rage. Researches into the Function of Emotional Excitement
(New York: Harper and Row, 1929). Also see I. M. Marks’
Fears, Phobias, and Rituals
(New York: Oxford Univ. Press, 1987); A. Öhman and U. Dimberg in
Sociopsychology
, edited by W. M. Waid (New York: Springer, 1984); I. M. Marks and Adolf Tobena in
Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews
, 14:365–84 (1990); D. H. Barlow’s Anxiety
and Its Disorders
(New York: Guilford, 1988); and Susan Mineka et al. in
Journal of Abnormal Psychology
, 93:355–72 (1984).

5
The fearful guppies are described by A. L. Dugatkin in
Behavioral Ecology
, 3:124–127 (1992).

6
For a review of signal detection theory, see D. M. Green and J. A. Swets,
Signal Detection Theory and Psycho-physics
(New York: Wiley, 1966).

7
R. H. Frank’s ideas are in his book
Passions Within Reason: The Strategic Role of the Emotions
(New York: Norton, 1988).

8
The increasing rate of depression is documented by the Cross-National Collaborative group in “The Changing Rate of Major Depression. Cross-National Comparisons,”
Journal of the American Medical Association
, 268:3098–105 (1992).

9
For general information on depression, see P. C. Whybrow et al. Mood
Disorders: Toward a New Psychobiology
(New York: Plenum, 1984); Emmy Gut’s
Productive and Unproductive Depression
(New York: Basic Books, 1989); Paul Gilbert’s
Human Nature and Suffering
(Hove, England: Erlbaum, 1989); and R. E. Thayer’s
The Biopsychology of Mood and Arousal
(New York: Oxford Univ. Press, 1989).

10
The data on writers are from N. C. Andreasen’s article in
The American Journal of Psychiatry
, 144:1288–92 (1987).

11
John Price’s original article is in
Lancet
, 2:243–6 (1967). Also see Russell R. Gardner, Jr., in
The Archives of General Psychiatry
, 39:1436–41 (1982), and J. S. Price and Leon Sloman’s article in
Ethology and Sociobiology, 8:85s-98s
(1987).

12
The data on serotonin in vervet monkeys are in M. J. Raleigh et al. article in
Brain Research
, 559:181–90 (1991).

13
For information on seasonal affective disorder, see N. E. Rosenthal and M. C. Blehar’s
Seasonal Affective Disorders and Phototherapy
(New York: Guilford, 1989); D. A. Oren and N. E. Rosenthal in
Handbook of Affective Disorders
, edited by E. S. Paykel (New York: Churchill Livingstone, 1992); and David Schlager, J. E. Schwartz, and E. J. Bromet in
British Journal of Psychiatry, 163:
322–6 (1993). The large study suggesting an increasing rate of depression is cited for p. 214.

14
On the studies of infant monkeys, see H. F. Harlow’s
Learning to Love
(New York: Aronson, 1974).

15
For sources of information on attachment, see Robert Karen’s review “Becoming Attached,”
The Atlantic
, February 1990, pp. 35–70; John Bowlby’s summary of his work in
The American Handbook of Psychiatry
, vol. 6, edited by D. D. Hamburg and H. K. H. Brodie (1969); and M. D. Ainsworth et al.
Patterns of Attachment: A Psychological Study of the Strange Situation
(Hillsdale, N.J.: Erlbaum, 1978). For a readable review of genetic focus that may influence attachment, see
Galen’s Prophecy
(New York: Basic Books, 1994).

16
On child abuse, see Martin Daly and Margo I. Wilson’s
Homicide
(New York: Aldine, 1989); their “Abuse and Neglect of Children in Evolutionary Perspective” in
Natural Selection and Social Behavior:
Recent
Research and Theory
, edited by R. D. Alexander and D. W. Tinkle (New York: Chiron Press, 1981); S. B. Hrdy’s “Infanticide as a Primate Productive Strategy,”
American Scientist
, 65:40–9 (1977); and R. J. Gelles and J. B. Lancaster, editors,
Child Abuse and Neglect
(New York: Aldine, 1987). Mark Flinn’s article is in
Ethology and Sociobiology
, 9:335–69 (1988).

17
On schizophrenia, see J. L. Karlsson’s article in
Hereditas
, 107:59–64 (1987), and J. S. Allen and V. M. Sarich’s in
Perspectives in Biology and Medicine
, 32:132–53 (1988). The idea that suspiciousness may be beneficial is in a chapter by L. F. Jarvik and S. B. Chadwick in
Psychopathology
, edited by M. Hammer, K. Salzinger, and S. Sutton (New York: Wiley, 1972). For an interesting and testable idea about schizophrenia and its possible relationship to sleep cycles, see Jay R. Feierman’s article in
Medical Hypotheses
, 9:455–79 (1982).

18
Ray Meddis’s ideas are expounded mainly in his book
The Sleep Instinct
(London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1977); he has a shorter presentation in
Animal Behavior
, 23:676–91 (1975). For a general review of sleep among the Mammalia, see M. Elgar, M. D. Pagel, and P. H. Harvey’s article in
Animal Behavior
, 40:991–5 (1990). For general reviews of sleep and sleep research, see Alexander Borbély’s
Secrets of Sleep
(New York: Basic Books, 1986), and Jacob Empson’s
Sleep and Dreaming
(London: Faber
and Faber, 1989). For the physiology of dreaming and the possible irrelevance of psychological functions, see J. A. Hobson’s
The Dreaming Brain
(New York: Basic Books, 1988); Ian Oswald, “Human Brain Proteins, Drugs, and Dreams,”
Nature
, 223:893–7 (1969); and Francis Crick and Graeme Mitchison, “The Function of Dream Sleep,”
Nature
, 304:111–14 (1983).

19
For sensorimotor constraints on dreaming, see Donald Symons’ article “The Stuff That Dreams Aren’t Made Of: Why Wake-State and Dream-State Sensory Experiences Differ,”
Cognition
, 47:181–217(1993).

The quotation at the beginning of this chapter is the title of an article by the eminent geneticist Theodosius Dobzhansky, published in
American Biology Teacher
, 35:125–9 (1973).

1
Readers may recognize the watch metaphor from Richard Dawkins’ fine introduction to evolution,
The Blind Watchmaker
(New York: Norton, 1986). He extended the often cited idea from William Paley’s 1802 masterpiece
Natural Theology
. While Paley’s book was intended to clinch the case for creationism, his many examples of exquisite design provided others, including Darwin, with superb evidence for the power of natural selection. Of particular interest is Paley’s attempt to explain convoluted design, which he attributes to the Deity’s wish to reveal His presence to man by “contrivances” of unnecessary complexity, and by constraining His creation within the bounds of fixed laws. Paley provides a sensible view of the utility of pain but then claims that death, sickness, and their unpredictability are all necessary parts of a divinely perfect world. It was thinking of this sort that inspired Voltaire to ridicule optimists like Dr. Pangloss in his novel
Candide
.

2
For the role of antioxidants in aging, see Richard G. Cutler’s “Antioxidants and Aging,”
American Journal of Clinical Nutrition
, 53:373s-379s (1991). For a brief review of current research on vitamin E, see C. H. Hennekens, J. E. Buring, and R. Peto’s “Antioxidant Vitamins—Benefits Not Yet Proved,”
New England Journal of Medicine
, 330:1080–1 (1994).

3
The quote is from pp. 445–6 of René Dubos’s
Man Adapting
(New Haven, Conn.: Yale Univ. Press, 1965, revised 1980).

4
The full title of Ernst Mayr’s work is
The Growth of Biological Thought: Diversity, Evolution, and Inheritance
(Cambridge, Mass.: Belknap Press of Harvard Univ. Press, 1982).

5
Several good books address the logic of formulating questions about function, and we recommend them to those who harbor
suspicions that evolutionary arguments are fundamentally illegitimate. It is a shame that such a simple misunderstanding should inhibit development of a whole field. See John Maynard Smith’s
Did Darwin Get It Right?
(New York: Chapman and Hall, 1989); E. Mayr’s “Teleological and Teleonomic, A New Analysis,”
Boston Studies in the Philosophy of Science
, 14:91–117 (1974); John Alcock’s Animal
Behavior: An Evolutionary Approach
, 4th ed. (Sunderland, Mass.: Sinauer, 1989); Michael Ruse’s
The Darwinian Paradigm
(London: Routledge, 1989), George Williams’
Natural Selection
(New York: Oxford Univ. Press, 1992); and his
Adaptation and Natural Selection: A Critique of Some Current Evolutionary Thought
(Princeton, N.J.: Princeton Univ. Press, 1966).

6
The Flexner report is
Medical Education in the United States and Canada
, The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, Bulletin No. 4 (1910).

7
For an informed view of the problems of modern medicine, see Melvin Konner’s
The Trouble with Medicine
(London: BBC Books, 1993).

8
The article that calls for preventive health care is James F. Fries and collaborators’ “Reducing Health Care Costs by Reducing the Need for Medical Services,”
The New England Journal of Medicine
, 329:321–5 (1993).