Evolution: the bridge between 'biological' and 'social' psychiatry.

Abstract

'Biological' and 'social' perspectives in psychiatry have exchanged dominance at different times in the history of our field and are sometimes erroneously viewed as being contrasting and mutually exclusive paradigms. We argue that the arbitrary 'biological/social' divide in psychiatry is misleading, unhelpful, and ultimately a false one. We propose that the evolutionary perspective provides a necessary framework and metatheory that can bridge this apparent schism in psychiatric thinking, providing novel and useful insights into how we can better assess, diagnose, and treat our patients.