Evolution Summary

The question of "why?" has been largely ignored in medical arenas on the subject of depression, but it is one that has taken the attention of evolutionists. Solomon suggests that looking at evolutionary questions regarding depression is looking at essentially what it means to be human. Mood disorders are complex conditions and are a common outcome of a variety of different causes.

Evolutionists argue that depression occurs much too often to be classified as a simple dysfunction and instead, it seems entirely more likely that the mechanisms that permit depression served as a reproductive advantage at some stage of evolution. From this supposition, there are four possibilities that are each at least partially true. The first possibility is that depression served a purpose in prehuman times that is no longer necessary. The second is that the stresses we encounter in our modern lives...