Where the upsides you described above were quite particular (e.g. “my parsimony protects me from bad financial decisions and demonstrates that I’m prudent”), Nesse discusses upsides of negative emotion from an evolutionary perspective. These evolutionary upsides are in some respects personal and particular like the above (e.g. “my relationship anxiety shows I care about my partner and is trying to tell me that they have not signalled their commitment satisfactorily”) but also have a suprapersonal or naturalistic dimension (e.g. “my relationship anxiety is an evolved, intelligent, healthy response to my social circumstances… it makes sense!”).
Nesse encourages positive reframing throughout the book, but it’s sometimes unclear how important he thinks the uniquely-evolutionary perspective is for patient outcomes vs positive reframing à la Burns. I find it hard to make empirical guesses about this in the absence of data, but I wouldn’t be surprised if thinking about evolution is unnecessary and Burns’ method is sufficient. Perhaps others who’ve read Nesse’s book will be able to clarify his thesis/claims more than my memory will allow. In any case, some people may enjoy the books together, particularly among this crowd.
I do recommend both of Nesse’s books (the other is Why We Get Sick, co-authored with the great George C. Williams). Thanks to Steve for sharing! Look forward to reading Burns.
Your brief example of positive reframing reminded me of Randolph Nesse’s Good Reasons for Bad Feelings: Insights from the Frontier of Evolutionary Psychiatry (which I heard about through the wise Peter Hase).
Where the upsides you described above were quite particular (e.g. “my parsimony protects me from bad financial decisions and demonstrates that I’m prudent”), Nesse discusses upsides of negative emotion from an evolutionary perspective. These evolutionary upsides are in some respects personal and particular like the above (e.g. “my relationship anxiety shows I care about my partner and is trying to tell me that they have not signalled their commitment satisfactorily”) but also have a suprapersonal or naturalistic dimension (e.g. “my relationship anxiety is an evolved, intelligent, healthy response to my social circumstances… it makes sense!”).
Nesse encourages positive reframing throughout the book, but it’s sometimes unclear how important he thinks the uniquely-evolutionary perspective is for patient outcomes vs positive reframing à la Burns. I find it hard to make empirical guesses about this in the absence of data, but I wouldn’t be surprised if thinking about evolution is unnecessary and Burns’ method is sufficient. Perhaps others who’ve read Nesse’s book will be able to clarify his thesis/claims more than my memory will allow. In any case, some people may enjoy the books together, particularly among this crowd.
I do recommend both of Nesse’s books (the other is Why We Get Sick, co-authored with the great George C. Williams). Thanks to Steve for sharing! Look forward to reading Burns.