Word: shaping
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...genophobes are misplaced. It is easy to exaggerate the significance of behavioral genetics for our lives. For one thing, genes cannot pull the strings of behavior directly. Behavior is caused by the activity of the brain, and the most genes can do is affect its wiring, size, shape and sensitivity to hormones and other molecules. Among the brain circuits laid down by genes are the ones that reflect on memories, current circumstances and the anticipated consequences of various courses of action and that select behavior accordingly--in an intricate and not entirely predictable way. These circuits are what we call...
...depths, is still part of the Freudian tradition, and that's not going to disappear. Psychoanalysis is based on the fundamental belief that we aren't just a collection of neurotransmitters to be fixed with a pill, or a set of cognitive skills to be coached back into shape like a slumping quarterback. To Freudians, the mind is a complex and mysterious thing, and symptoms like depression and anxiety are the language in which deep inner conflicts express themselves. "Now most psychiatrists have scorn for psychoanalysis," says Frattaroli. "In this age of the quick fix, the idea...
...inherently flawed? Because many forces besides science shape it, including politics, fashion and tradition. The A.P.A. actually once held a vote among its members to see whether an alleged disorder--homosexuality--existed. (In 1974, being gay was deemed sane by a vote of 5,854 to 3,810.) Women's groups helped excise "self-defeating personality disorder" from the book. The revised third edition, in 1987, said the typical sufferer "chooses people and situations that lead to disappointment, failure, or mistreatment even when better options are clearly available." But feminists successfully argued that battered women could unfairly fit this category...
...women are better integrated emotional organisms, that difference may begin in the womb, when estrogen and progesterone help shape the function and structure of the brain. "The hormones are very physiologic," says Dr. Nada Stotland, professor of psychiatry at Rush Medical College in Chicago. "They have very measurable effects." Similar hormonal surges later in life may have an equally profound impact, triggering higher rates of depression among women between puberty (when estrogen starts to rise and fluctuate) and menopause (when the hormone is turned down low). Other--though less clear--physical differences may explain why boys are more likely than...
...best results come from combining two or more scanning methods. Some capture the size and shape of brain structures; others freeze-frame the ever shifting activity of nerve cells as they fire and subside. With this information, doctors are beginning to understand--at the level of the neuron--how mental illnesses occur. "Brain imaging," says Dr. Nancy Andreasen, a leading schizophrenia researcher at the University of Iowa and the MIND Institute in Albuquerque, N.M., "has changed the face of psychiatry...