Evolutionary Psychology
Every student of psychiatry, psychology and social work learns Walter Canon's theory on anxiety during the introductory course of psychology. Canon, an American physiologist, claimed that the
"Fight or Flight"
response is our body's primitive, automatic, inborn response that prepares it to fight or flee from perceived attack, harm or threat to its survival.
During my years of working at the Tel Aviv Medical Center, psychiatric clinic in Israel, I specialized in treating people who suffered from a variety of anxiety symptoms. At our first meeting, I always explained that the symptoms they exhibited were related to the
"Fight or Flight"
response, which helped our ancestors survive the harsh conditions of their everyday life. After a short theoretical explanation, I continued by guiding each patient to employ different psychological methods, appropriate to his personality and the problems from which he suffered.
An extreme change in my approach occurred when I treated a student who suffered from a severe test anxiety. In his words, before every test, and even while taking it, he suffered from difficulty in concentrating. During our first meeting, I explained Canon's
"Fight or Flight"
theory. I tried to continue guiding him in coping with his problem, but he stopped me. He was the first patient who wanted to understand how the difficulties in concentration contributed to the survival of our ancestors. In his opinion, when a person is confronted by a beast of prey he has to increase his ability to concentrate and not lose it. To my surprise, I could not come up with a logical explanation. I promised him to peruse the psychological literature and get back to him. When I searched the Internet for websites connected with symptoms of anxiety, there were references to articles in the field of Evolutionary Psychology. I found this branch of psychology a very interesting one but I could not find in the literature how each of the anxiety symptoms contributed to the survival of our ancestors.
The following three tenets are the essence of Evolutionary Psychology:
• Every trait of character, every emotion and every form of behavior that is shared by mankind, regardless race or culture, is part of the human genetic pool.
• A gene determines only a tendency but not the overt behavior. The behavior is influenced by the culture and environment of the person as he was growing up and by his life experiences. For example, every person is capable of getting angry but the ways of expressing that anger are influenced by his culture, life experiences and education.
• All the genes have undergone a process of mutations during human evolution. Most of those that remain in the genetic pool of the modern person contributed to survival and procreation of our ancestors.
Evolutionary Psychology captured my attention
because it affords a positive view of an assortment of psychological symptoms. It helps patients understand how each of their symptoms
contributed to the survival of our ancestors. Once they stop having negative feelings about their symptoms, they cease feeling disappointed
or angry with themselves and, as a result, the healing process is accelerated. Evolutionary Psychology does not overlook the impact
negative childhood experiences may have on a person's behavior and it does not deny the fact that people suffering from severe anxiety or depression may need medication.
It is important to emphasize that Evolutionary Psychology does not deal with the issue of whether humans evolved from monkeys, as Charles Darwin claimed, or were created as a separate species, as people of faith believe. It also does not deal with the issue of whether man began developing some 8 million years ago, as scientists believe, or only 6 thousand years ago, as people of faith claim. It is therefore possible for both psychologists of faith and patients of faith to accept the theories prevalent in Evolutionary Psychology.
At this point, I would like to continue describing the experience I had with the student who suffered from test anxiety. To respond to his questions, about how our ancestors benefited from the loss of concentration while encountering a predator, I shut my eyes and imagined that I was living in prehistoric times and was going out to hunt. Suddenly I saw a lone wolf in front of me. The realization that due to my fear I may lose my concentration began to worry me. I assumed that a form of ancient instinct took over and gave me the hint that wolves, as a rule, attack in packs, one in front and several in back of the victim. I quickly made up my mind that I had better concentrate on my surroundings before making a decision as to whether I should fight or flee. When I opened my eyes, I realized that I had an answer to my patient's question. When we are anxious we actually do not lose our concentration; we actually broaden our attention span, whereas when we are calm we narrow our attention span. Now I was able to respond to the question of how the loss of concentration benefited our ancestors and helped them survive. However, this instinct seems outdated. In modern times, the loss of concentration seems to interfere with coping with modern threats.
In our follow-up session, I reported my findings to my patient. His response was, "It seems quite logical. Now I understand the reason for the fact that when I study at home and hear noise from the next room, it causes me to raise my head and turn it toward the sound. It also explains the reason why, when during a test the examiner moves from one side of the room to the other, I get distracted, raise my head and follow his movements."
During the course of the following sessions, the student learned relaxation techniques that ultimately helped him overcome his test anxiety.
Grandma Lucy's Legacy
Dan Jackson discovered a skeleton of a woman in Ethiopia in 1974. She lived about four millions years ago. Jackson named her "Lucy" because when the research team was assembling the skeleton, the Beatles song "Lucy in the Sky" was playing in the background. I added the title of "Grandma" to Lucy, in view of my respect and admiration for her contemporaries who greatly contributed to the understanding of the phenomenon of stress and anxiety in modern humans. Despite the fact that numerous additional skeletons have been discovered, some preceding Lucy's, Lucy became the famous one, since her skeleton is the most complete that has ever been found.
This is "Grandma Lucy"
During 99% of human history, survival depended on the
"Fight or Flight"
response, since most of the threats prehistoric man encountered were from predators. A dramatic transformation occurred approximately ten thousand years ago when our ancestors moved to live in permanent settlements and turned to agricultural endeavors and animal domestication. This transformation afforded them security and free time that was advantageously utilized to develop human culture. Unfortunately, the old, positive instinct is still affecting modern humans and psychiatrists name it "Anxiety Disorder."