The Madness of Adam and Eve by David Horrobin (How Schizophrenia Shaped Humanity).What a fascinating read this was, the first half a treatise on evolution and the building blocks of how the brain works on a physical level. The presence of fats in many shapes and types in various functions where you would not normally associate fat. Specifically phospholipids and how they work.
From there an examination of Schizophrenia, Schizotypy, Manic Depression, Psychopathy and of course the flip sides of genius and creativity.
Not for everyone but a very viable theory with sound evidence and supporting anecdotes that bear further examination. Drugs for schizophrenia are marginally effective and have massive side effects, and I have no problem with pharmaceuticals, just the companies that sell them. So to see a fat/diet based theory deliver twice the effective rate in trials is encouraging, not because it's natural or better so much as it could be driven without profit or side effect. Unless you count deliciousness as a side effect.
The last chapter summarising all the evolutionary steps seemed necessary to go through again. Maybe it's because I read this in less than a week, it felt like we'd been over this already, I guess not everyone will read it that way.
Having finished the book I did look up a bit further into the author and his claims, he died in 2003 and various sources accused him of quackery, but as this book is a hypothesis and quite often claims that further research is required then it seems a bit sour grapes. However the line of inquiry did not die with him as other writers bicker over who's idea it was first. Still a good read and an interesting theory.
Next Week: I have my eye on Giles Milton's, Wolfram an account of his grandfather as a soldier in the German army in WW2.
No comments:
Post a Comment