For example, not all mental illnesses are caused by a lack of gumption. Many, such as clinical depression and schizophrenia, are genetic in nature, and will strike their victims regardless of how awesomely rational they are.
I’m afraid this account has swung to the opposite extreme—to the extent that it is quite possibly further from the truth and more misleading than Gatto’s obvious hyperbole.
Schizophrenia is one of the most genetically determined of the well known mental health problems but even it is heavily dependent on life experiences. In particular, long term exposure to stressful environments or social adversity dramatically increases the risk that someone at risk for developing the condition will in fact do so.
As for clinical depression, the implication that due to being ‘genetic in nature’ means that the environment in which an individual spends decades of growth and development in is somehow not important is utterly absurd. Genetics is again relevant in determining how vulnerable the individual is but the social environment is again critical for determining whether problems will arise.
That’s a good point, I did not mean to imply that these mental illnesses are completely unaffected by environmental factors. In addition, in case of some illnesses such as depression, there are in fact many different causes that can lead to similar symptoms, so the true picture is a lot more complex (and is still not entirely well understood).
However, this is very different from saying something like “schizophrenia is completely environmental”, or even “if only people had some basic critical thinking skills, they’d never become depressed”, which is how I interpreted Gatto’s claims.
For example even with a relatively low heritability rate, millions of people would still contract schizophrenia every year worldwide—especially since many of the adverse life experiences that can trigger it are unavoidable. No amount of critical thinking will reduce the number of victims to zero. And that’s just one specific disease among many, and we’re not even getting into more severe cases such as Down’s Syndrome. If Gatto thinks otherwise, then he’s being hopelessly naive.
I’m afraid this account has swung to the opposite extreme—to the extent that it is quite possibly further from the truth and more misleading than Gatto’s obvious hyperbole.
Schizophrenia is one of the most genetically determined of the well known mental health problems but even it is heavily dependent on life experiences. In particular, long term exposure to stressful environments or social adversity dramatically increases the risk that someone at risk for developing the condition will in fact do so.
As for clinical depression, the implication that due to being ‘genetic in nature’ means that the environment in which an individual spends decades of growth and development in is somehow not important is utterly absurd. Genetics is again relevant in determining how vulnerable the individual is but the social environment is again critical for determining whether problems will arise.
That’s a good point, I did not mean to imply that these mental illnesses are completely unaffected by environmental factors. In addition, in case of some illnesses such as depression, there are in fact many different causes that can lead to similar symptoms, so the true picture is a lot more complex (and is still not entirely well understood).
However, this is very different from saying something like “schizophrenia is completely environmental”, or even “if only people had some basic critical thinking skills, they’d never become depressed”, which is how I interpreted Gatto’s claims.
For example even with a relatively low heritability rate, millions of people would still contract schizophrenia every year worldwide—especially since many of the adverse life experiences that can trigger it are unavoidable. No amount of critical thinking will reduce the number of victims to zero. And that’s just one specific disease among many, and we’re not even getting into more severe cases such as Down’s Syndrome. If Gatto thinks otherwise, then he’s being hopelessly naive.