What I’m Reading
In-depth history of psychiatric hubris, from the early days of mental institutions and anatomical research all the way up to the modern attempts to cast mental disorders as biomedical in origin. This book is not the polemic I expected (or wanted, frankly, although it does contain some recommendations in the afterword), but it’s still good reading to understand the fraught history of the psychiatry experiment.
2019’s book of the year for me. This book argues that our traditional understanding of evolution as a genetic process occurring at an individual level is too narrow—instead, Wilson places evolutionary processes into a multi-dimensional, multi-level framework that allows us to apply Darwin to everything from chicken farms to public policy. David Sloan Wilson is a friend of CBS, and this book even has a chapter explaining how evolution can help us be better ACT therapists too. Highest recommendation.
Fascinating book, filled with lively anecdotes that provide a good historical understanding of genetic inheritance. I especially appreciated the chapters on the science of race and racism. See also my blog post on phenylketonuria.
