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Your analogy does not work. The reason people succumbed to widespread and severe physical illness, despite clear evolutionary pressure not to do so, is because

by patrec 7y ago

Your analogy does not work. The reason people succumbed to widespread and severe physical illness, despite clear evolutionary pressure not to do so, is because there is equal evolutionary pressure on pathogens to successfully bypass host adaptations. Any psychological or physiological damage which doesn't noticeably dent your reproductive fitness, isn't -- at least as far as evolution is concerned. But being a mental wreck along the lines that PTSD is often portrayed very clearly would negatively impact your reproductive success.

jplayer01 7y ago
> But being a mental wreck along the lines that PTSD is often portrayed very clearly would negatively impact your reproductive success. There are plenty of people with PTSD who have families (particularly, kids). Our reproductive age begins really, really, really early and our reproductive drive is incredibly strong. I don't know why mental illness like PTSD would in any way impact our ability to procreate as a species or at an individual level. It might make life more difficult and life might be filled with more suffering, but we're able to procreate under all kinds of bizarrely sub-optimal conditions.
- patrec 7y ago
  > I don't know why mental illness like PTSD would in any way impact our ability to procreate as a species or at an individual level. One wonders if you could imagine anything that might in any way impact an individual's ability to procreate and have surviving offspring, if you don't see how significantly heightened suicide risk, being volatile and potentially dangerous to be around and restricted in normal functioning might in any way impact an individual's success in having surviving offspring.
  - jplayer01 7y ago
    At a population level, we're ridiculously resilient. Or we wouldn't be here today in the numbers that you see. I just don't see PTSD being maladaptive enough. Maybe if you were born with it and were so dysfunctional that you couldn't interact at all with the opposite sex? Otherwise, I don't see it. There are too many other factors that are important for procreation for PTSD to override all of them.

by patrec 7y ago

jplayer01 7y ago

> But being a mental wreck along the lines that PTSD is often portrayed very clearly would negatively impact your reproductive success. There are plenty of people with PTSD who have families (particularly, kids). Our reproductive age begins really, really, really early and our reproductive drive is incredibly strong. I don't know why mental illness like PTSD would in any way impact our ability to procreate as a species or at an individual level. It might make life more difficult and life might be filled with more suffering, but we're able to procreate under all kinds of bizarrely sub-optimal conditions.

patrec 7y ago
> I don't know why mental illness like PTSD would in any way impact our ability to procreate as a species or at an individual level. One wonders if you could imagine anything that might in any way impact an individual's ability to procreate and have surviving offspring, if you don't see how significantly heightened suicide risk, being volatile and potentially dangerous to be around and restricted in normal functioning might in any way impact an individual's success in having surviving offspring.
- jplayer01 7y ago
  At a population level, we're ridiculously resilient. Or we wouldn't be here today in the numbers that you see. I just don't see PTSD being maladaptive enough. Maybe if you were born with it and were so dysfunctional that you couldn't interact at all with the opposite sex? Otherwise, I don't see it. There are too many other factors that are important for procreation for PTSD to override all of them.