fromderinside
Mazzie Daius
- Joined
- Oct 6, 2008
- Messages
- 15,945
- Basic Beliefs
- optimist
I'd take issue with a blanket statement that there are no measurable physical indicators of mental illness. PET scans and fMRIs of the brain show clear irregularities in blood flow, neural 'wiring' and reactions to stimuli. MRIs often reveal anatomical irregularities. Lab tests show abnormalities in neurotransmitters and even routine blood tests often show abnormal catecholamine and steroid production or metabolism. Even such crude contraptions as polygraphs have revealed unique response patterns in certain demographics.
As has been pointed out, what is a dysfunctional abnormality in one situation may be be a selective advantage in another. In a tribe of hunter gatherers a few hyperactive, hypervigilant individuals (ADHD) might be the best hunters and the first to notice something dangerous along the path. Homosexual males might make good camp guards when the hunters are out, or bodyguards for foraging groups of women.
In Chimpanzees, marginal individuals exhibiting symptoms we would label depressive, function as sentries on the periphery of the band.
I think you are trying to answer a question with two points of view. First you use norms akin to those gained by dropping microphones above 7th and Broadway in NYC then you find another microphone and drop it into a pool of nucleic acid and wave a dousing stick over it to divine relative fitness.
My point is we don't have nearly enough information to even denote what the the ADHD complex is , much less to know the prognostic values of such as fMRI or genetic technologies with regard to these issues.
As for Chimpanzee, Bonobo and other social primates their patterns are much too different, at the same time much too near, to be used as exemplars for any kind of cogent decision making about mental illness.
Since the advent of sociobiology comparative psychobiology has been left to die a slow death. The main thing lost in analytic scientific statements seems to be that models need be established across species lineages and between species lineages before one reaches out for examples and exemplars. the main point of these points is that both within lineage and between lineage contrasts are necessary for useful prognostic decisions.