The Urban Scientist

Matryuschka dolls really do point the way to a better understanding of human behavior. Different disciplines need not argue and laymen need not choose up sides. Let a thousand flowers bloom...at least until we learn a whole lot more.

But tell me, Doctor, do you find that females seem to have a more difficult time with Evolutionary Psychology than do males? That has certainly been my experience but...then again...that may be nothing more than my experience.

Steve Mason
PT Blogger

Steve, great to hear from you - love it when folks in the field are out there doing public education on radio, such as your show...

Yeah, I think it's one of those areas hard to generalize about, since there are always exceptions, and those who are the exception take issue...

...but if women are hard-wired to seek security in relationships, then the "non-instinct-based" areas of function traditionally covered by cognitive-behavioral therapy and psychoanalysis - EvoPsych's "Mammalian Brain" and "Higher Brain" - are both gender neutral in function, yet appealing to women.

Translation: EvoPsych is all about the instincts and passions that other schools can't really explain, the sexual and dark sides of behavior that are generally appealing to men as motivators, but not so much to the romantic comedy crowd, more often women.

Thanks for cross talking - it's good to connect!

Why to psychologists/psychoanalysts persist to example animals as if they were some kind of mindless automatons--pure impulse and no discernment? (A rhetorical question.) We already know that the other beings with whom we share this world have rich emotional lives and sophisticated social structures. They remember kindness and injustices done to them even for their entire lives. They create their own homes, mate with choice and purpose, and establish their own territories and boundaries even if all they can do is piss on a tree.

Animals have long been revered by American Indian tribes as totems for their SPIRITUAL qualities. Contemplate the spirit of a wolf. Feel the power, strength and freedom. Contemplate the spirit of a dove. Feel the softness, gentleness and peace.

Love, maturity, commitment, teamwork, rational thought, abstract reasoning, rights, responsibility, and even ethics and morality are qualities that are at home in animals as well, Dr. Paul; you just haven't been paying attention. If they did not possess these qualities, they would be useless in psych- experiments, they would be unable to relate to us, and their ability to survive and prosper in this world would be high unstable, if at all.

And, if animals do or could contemplate us, would what they say? Those humans! The things they do to us, and to each other. Those humans! They are less than animals! We are more like animals when we are most divine, and less than animals when we are most base. (The real ugly truth.)

I majored in art in college, but was also premed. I took every biology course I could from the most basic zoology and microbiology all the way to the most magical and elegant of cellular biology on the molecular level. I aced them all. I took several psych- courses as well, and I am a mystic. This is the platform on which I stand when I express my disagreement on what Evo-Psych's call "instincts." What are being called instincts are actually behaviors & motivations that are more hormonally mediated and socially conditioned. They are not naturally innate. Illustration in point, castrate a stallion and the gelding then becomes as docile and complacent as a mare. Where are his instincts then? I feel it would be more profitable for psychoanalysts to remain with their prior phrase of "motivational forces" to describe behaviors instead of instincts. Motivational force at least implies choice, whereas instinct does not. Having the ability to choose is what allows us to adapt to change and recreate our reality. After all, we still exist in a quantum universe--even animals.

While raising companion animals in Texas, I was happily anticipating a delivery one night only to awaken the next day to find my pet had delivered and the poor creatures had suffocated in their membranes. She was huddled in the opposite corner as if in fear and horror of the experience. Consulting a veterinary professor at U.T. Austin, I was informed that what are commonly believed to be instinctual in animals are actually learned behaviors. He suggested the next time if possible to tear the membranes over their heads so they could breathe and then leave them. She would be attracted to their sounds and movement. The doctor was right; his method worked. Recently AOL posted a news story online regarding a pair of small Asian monkeys who gave birth and then abandoned the baby in fear as well. The caretakers had to adopt her, admitting at the same time that the monkey pair had never "learned" to parent their infant. One could think this is so absolutely crucial to survival it ought to be instinctual and, yet, it is not.

Yes, I saw The Ugly Truth--three times, but never mind. It was the spirits of Tracy and Hepburn on screen again with their sparkling sparring banter, or a very modern day beauty and the beast--take your pick. Either way, she must be a Libra girl because she tamed him so very well, like only us Libra girls know how to tame the animal in you guys (with no Jedi mind tricks--that would be the Scorpio girl!)