Could Our Species Usefully Become Social Psychiatry's 21st Century Scientific Concern?

General Purpose: To identify evolved human social traits that undermine effective interventions against social, environmental, and other threats to health, wellbeing, and survival of individuals and our species. Methods: To identify destructive individual and group social behaviors, the author surveyed 21st century interpretations of behavioral issues raised in primatologists studies of chimpanzees and bonobos. Drawing from a wide range of physical and social sciences, he then selected specific issues regarding health, wellbeing, and survival for study in humans. To test functionality, concepts were challenged for implications. To explore practicality, applications were identified and models for possible clinical and policy use were developed. Results: Analyses identified specific impediments to effective human responses to threatening or otherwise challenging circumstances and their implications. Using two models for psychiatric interventions, the author explored potentials for intervention against the involved dysfunctional behavioral traits. Conclusions: An evolutionary biological phylogenetic focus clarifies why humans experience dysfunctional traits as a result of evolution. This provides a broader, important grounding for further psychiatric research and development of interventions.