“Long before there were effective treatments, physicians dispensed prognoses, hope, and, above all, meaning. When something terrible happens-and serious disease is always terrible-people want to know why. In a pantheistic world, the explanation was simple-one god had caused the problem,… — Randolph M. Nesse Copy Share Image
“[Mood allocates] investments of time, effort, resources, and risk taking to maximize Darwinian fitness in situations of varying propitiousness. High and low moods adjust… — Randolph M. Nesse Copy Share
“The current danger for most of us is not the deprivation suffered by our ancestors but an excess of nutrition.” — Randolph M. Nesse Copy Share
“The current danger for most of us is not the deprivation suffered bu our ancestors but an excess of nutrition.” — Randolph M. Nesse Copy Share
I can't prove it, but I'm pretty sure that people gain a selective advantage from believing in things they can't prove. — Randolph M. Nesse Copy Share
“People are not controlled by some internal calculator that crudely motivates them to maximize their reproductive success. Instead, people form deep, lifelong emotional attachments… — Randolph M. Nesse Copy Share
“Darwinism gives no moral guidelines about how we should live or how doctors should practice medicine. A Darwinian perspective on medicine can, however, help… — Randolph M. Nesse Copy Share
“Therapists have long known that many depressions go away only after a person finally gives up some long-sought goal and turns his or her… — Randolph M. Nesse Copy Share
“Paradoxically, it now is much easier to treat many mental disorders than it is to understand them.” — Randolph M. Nesse Copy Share
“Long before there were effective treatments, physicians dispensed prognoses, hope, and, above all, meaning. When something terrible happens-and serious disease is always terrible-people want… — Randolph M. Nesse Copy Share
“Thanks to subsequent years of conversations with evolutionists, especially Williams, and with medical school residents and faculty, he has found that an evolutionary perspective… — Randolph M. Nesse Copy Share
“Emotional capacities are shaped by situations that occurred repeatedly in the course of evolution and that were important to fitness. Attacks by predators, threats… — Randolph M. Nesse Copy Share
“Every textbook description of a disease should have, in our opinion, a section devoted to its evolutionary aspects. This section should address the following… — Randolph M. Nesse Copy Share
Natural selection involves no plan, no goal, and no direction — just genes increasing and decreasing in frequency depending on whether individuals with those… — Randolph M. Nesse Copy Share
“Even our behavior and emotions seem to have been shaped by a prankster. Why do we crave the very foods that are bad for… — Randolph M. Nesse Copy Share
