Nature and Nurture in Mental Disorders, Second Edition

Nature or nurture? The debate has raged for decades in clinical psychiatry. In this extensively revised, second edition of Nature and Nurture in Mental Disorders, Joel Paris, MD, argues that the dichotomy is not just unhelpful but unnecessary altogether.

The book thoughtfully discusses the theories that affect the study of genes, the environment, and their interaction and examines what the empirical evidence reveals about each of these issues. The author posits a biopsychosocial approach—one that acknowledges the role an individual's predisposing genetic factors, interacting with environmental stressors, play in the etiology of many mental disorders.

Readers will see this model applied to a range of common disorders, including depressive, neurodevelopmental, eating, and personality disorders. By rejecting both biological and psychosocial reductionism in favor of an interactive model, Nature and Nurture in Mental Disorders points the way toward a more flexible, effective treatment model.