Religious beliefs, evolutionary psychiatry, and mental health in America: evolutionary threat assessment systems theory
Introduction -- Part I: The origin of evolutionary ideas in historical and religious context. Greek philosophy, early Christian theology, purpose, and change -- The Reformation and the Enlightenment -- 19th century evolutionary thought before Charles Darwin -- Part II: Charles Darwin's theories...
| Summary: | Introduction -- Part I: The origin of evolutionary ideas in historical and religious context. Greek philosophy, early Christian theology, purpose, and change -- The Reformation and the Enlightenment -- 19th century evolutionary thought before Charles Darwin -- Part II: Charles Darwin's theories of evolution and reactions to them. Charles Darwin's Origin of species -- Reactions to the Darwin's Origin of species -- Darwin's Descent of man and The Expression of emotions -- Reactions to The expression of emotions -- Part III: Evolutionary psychiatry. Brain evolution and emotions -- Fear in the animal and human brain -- Anxiety disorders as evolutionary adaptations -- Other psychiatric disorders as evolutionary adaptations -- Beliefs and psychiatric symptoms -- Evolutionary threat assessment systems theory -- Part IV: Religious beliefs and mental health. Belief in God and life-after-death among American adults -- Religion and death anxiety -- Belief in life-after-death and mental health -- Beliefs about life-after-death and psychiatric symptoms -- Beliefs about the nature of God and mental health -- Beliefs about one's relationship with God and mental health -- Belief in God as an attachment figure and mental health -- Belief in meaning in life and mental health -- Religious doubt and mental health -- Belief in divine forgiveness, evil, and Biblical literalism and mental health -- Part V: Summary, conclusions, and recommendations for future research. The historical development of theories of organic evolution -- Darwin's books about evolution and reactions to them -- Evolutionary psychiatry and ETAS theory -- Belief in life-after-death and mental health -- Beliefs about God and mental health -- Belief in meaning, other religious beliefs, religious doubt, and mental health -- Directions for future research on ETAS theory. This book provides a new perspective on the association between religious beliefs and mental health. The book is divided into five parts, the first of which traces the development of theories of organic evolution in the cultural and religious context before Charles Darwin. Part II describes the major evolutionary theories that Darwin proposed in his three books on evolution, and the religious, sociological, and scientific reactions to his theories. Part III introduces the reader to the concept of evolutionary psychiatry. It discusses how different regions of the brain evolved over time, and explains that certain brain regions evolved to protect us from danger by assessing threats of harm in the environment, including other humans. Specifically, this part describes: how psychiatric symptoms that are commonly experienced by normal individuals during their everyday lives are the product of brain mechanisms that evolved to protect us from harm; the prevalence rate of psychiatric symptoms in the U.S. general population; how religious and other beliefs influence the brain mechanisms that underlie psychiatric symptoms; and the brain regions that are involved in different psychiatric disorders. Part IV presents the findings of U.S. studies demonstrating that positive beliefs about God and life-after-death, and belief in meaning-in-life and divine forgiveness have salutary associations with mental health, whereas negative beliefs about God and life-after-death, belief in the Devil and human evil, and doubts about one's religious beliefs have pernicious associations with mental health. The last part of the book summarizes each section and recommends research on the brain mechanism underlying psychiatric symptoms, and the relationships among these brain mechanisms, religious beliefs, and mental health in the context of ETAS Theory |
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| Item Description: | Includes bibliographical references and index |
| ISBN: | 3319524879 |
| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1007/978-3-319-52488-7 |