The Blank Slate

Not In Our Genes, Steven Rose, R.C. Lewontin, Leon J. Kamin. Penguin, Harmondsworth, Middlesex (1984), xi, +322. Price £3·95

Biology has genetic, epigenetic, developmental, ecological, and evolutionary components. In addition to the scientific fields contributing to biology the philosophy of science also frames the field. As is the case with all the sciences, progress in biology depends on advances in theory building, empirical research, and modeling. Development, as one of the central processes of biology, has been the focus of both empirical and theoretical attention for centuries. Research techniques and methods used in biology to study development have evolved dramatically over the past several decades, generating a wealth of detailed empirical data. Metatheoretical frameworks, theories, and modeling have likewise advanced, calling into question established interpretations and assumptions about development, including the relation between genotype and phenotype, the nature and extent of heredity, the links between development and evolution, and the biological bases of behavior and cognition. In this chapter, we review the history and current status of biology's view of development and discuss the broader implications of this view for a psychobiological systems view of human development.


Keywords:

behavioral genetics;
brain development;
developmental systems;
epigenetics;
evolutionary theory;
experience-dependent development;
genetics;
heritability;
nativism;
nature-nurture;
psychobiology

Biology, Development, and Human Systems

Beginning in 1954, the author studied 12 pairs of monozygotic twins, aged 22 to 77 years, who had been "reared apart since early childhood." The clinical research extended over a two- to four-year interval for each twin pair. The methods included indepth serial medical and psychiatric interviews, EEGs, ECGs, chest films, Wechsler-Bellevue intelligence measurements, and personality profiles as interpreted from the Rorschach test. To assist in confirming zygosity, blood groups were documented. The current publication is a revised edition of the original, published in 1965, with a follow-up of the twins 25 years after the initiation of the investigation. The results are discussed in four categories: health in general, physical illnesses, level of intelligence and personality profile, and presence or absence of mental illness. Among the similarities between the twins of each pair are EEGs, level of functioning intelligence, and presence or absence of migraine headache. However, personality profiles showed

Individual and Environment: Monozygotic Twins Reared Apart

Ernst Rudin (1874-1952) was the founder of psychiatric genetics and was also a founder of the German racial hygiene movement. Throughout his long career he played a major role in promoting eugenic ideas and policies in Germany, including helping formulate the 1933 Nazi eugenic sterilization law and other governmental policies directed against the alleged carriers of genetic defects. In the 1940s Rudin supported the killing of children and mental patients under a Nazi program euphemistically called "Euthanasia." The authors document these crimes and discuss their implications, and also present translations of two publications Rudin co-authored in 1938 showing his strong support for Hitler and his policies. The authors also document what they see as revisionist historical accounts by leading psychiatric genetic authors. They outline three categories of contemporary psychiatric genetic accounts of Rudin and his work: (A) those who write about German psychiatric genetics in the Nazi period, but either fail to mention Rudin at all, or cast him in a favorable light; (B) those who acknowledge that Rudin helped promote eugenic sterilization and/or may have worked with the Nazis, but generally paint a positive picture of Rudin's research and fail to mention his participation in the "euthanasia" killing program; and (C) those who have written that Rudin committed and supported unspeakable atrocities. The authors conclude by calling on the leaders of psychiatric genetics to produce a detailed and complete account of their field's history, including all of the documented crimes committed by Rudin and his associates.

Ernst Rüdin: Hitler’s Racial Hygiene Mastermind

The psychiatric genetics field is currently undergoing a crisis due to the decades-long failure to uncover the genes believed to cause the major psychiatric disorders. Since 2009, leading researchers have explained these negative results on the basis of the “missing heritability” argument, which holds that more effective research methods must be developed to uncover presumed missing genes. According to the author, problems with the missing heritability argument include genetic determinist beliefs, a reliance on twin research, the use of heritability estimates, and the failure to seriously consider the possibility that presumed genes do not exist. The author concludes that decades of negative results support a finding that genes for the major psychiatric disorders do not appear to exist, and that research attention should be directed away from attempts to uncover “missing heritability” and toward environmental factors and a reassessment of previous genetic interpretations of psychiatric family, twin, and a...

http://jayjoseph.net/yahoo_site_admin/assets/docs/2012_Joseph_Missing_Heritability_ADS_As_Published_Online.114214811.pdf

The ''Missing Heritability'' of Psychiatric Disorders: Elusive Genes or Non-Existent Genes?

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The ''Missing Heritability'' of Psychiatric Disorders: Elusive Genes or Non-Existent Genes?