I realize that a lot of people on Hacker News might consider this to be pseudoscience territory, but what about something like The Biology of Love by Arthur Jan

I realize that a lot of people on Hacker News might consider this to be pseudoscience territory, but what about something like The Biology of Love by Arthur Janov? http://www.amazon.com/Biology-Love-Arthur-Janov/dp/1573928291/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1241727322&sr=1-1 http://www.amazon.com/Biology-Love-Arthur-Janov/dp/157392829... His theory is that the primary cause of mental illness is intrauterine trauma, which negatively affects the structure of the emotional brain at a very crucial developmental stage. This trauma is undiagnosed and untreated in the newborn infant, and persists into adulthood, where it results in depression, addiction, panic attacks, etc. ----------------------------------------- EDIT: asciilifeform, do you have some kind of axe to grind? Anyways, here's a few links to scientific studies that support the relationship between intrauterine trauma and mental illness: Relationship of maternal and perinatal conditions to eventual adolescent suicide http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/2857957 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/2857957 Obstetric care and proneness of offspring to suicide as adults: case-control study http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/9812930 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/9812930 Controversial, yes. Without any scientific support, no.