ODo not fascinate about working as a psychotherapist is an opportunity to observe the number of our problems, we force ourselves of ourselves. The difficulties we encounter are often the result of self-sabotage, and managing them often requires fighting with our own records, making our best so as not to give in to all pulses. It’s easier to say than to do, of course. Losing weight and keeping it, to succeed in getting out of the debt, finding significant work, maintaining happy long -term relationships: all the demand postponing our immediate desires at the service of a longer -term objective.
Death the gratuity, as it is called, has been a tactic useful for eons. But at some point, it becomes reasonable to ask: why SO A large part of modern life seems to involve swimming upstream? Why follow our instincts often seem to cause us so many problems?
One of the central ideas in the field of evolutionary psychology is that of “evolutionary gap”. In simple terms, we have evolved in an environment very different from that in which we are now. Consequently, our brains, our bodies and our instincts are badly associated with their environment.
To what extent does this really matter? Is this not the characteristic of the human being of our species to adapt to changing circumstances? Yes and no. Yes, we have a remarkable ability to deal with new problems, collaborate to find solutions and create technology to help us carry them out. At the same time, anthropologists believe that human genetics and anatomy have been largely unchanged for around 100,000 years. At the time, we lived in small nomadic hunter tribes, developing only agriculture about 10,000 years ago and civilizations 5,000 years ago.
For all, except a smaller number of us, contemporary human habitat is not the one for which we were made. We can no longer expect that genetic adaptations (which can take tens of thousands of years) expect to move to cities, not to mention technological and cultural changes, which can have spectacular impacts during a single life. So what were the benefits?
Perhaps the most stardy impact has been on our tasks. The instinct of slipping on foods rich in salt, fat and sugar has maintained people alive for most of human history, while the next meal has never been guaranteed. Now, we live in a world where calories are cheap, and where scientists devote entire careers to the manufacture of “hyperpalatable” foods-that is to say much more attractive than any food found in nature. These artificial snacks interfere with the ability of the body to regulate appetite, which makes it very difficult to have a single crisp, or a single cookie. Obesity, previously rare, has now exceeded malnutrition as the main public health problem concerning food in many regions of the world.
The field of dating (and coupling) has also changed beyond any recognition. A strong desire to find the right sexual partner was essential when we gathered in tribes of around 150 people against a ruthless world. But at that time, the pool of potential companions was small. We now have devices that connect us to thousands and thousands of them. Consequently, the process often becomes prolonged and crushing – a phase of life characterized by paralysis of choice, a hurtful behavior such as ghosts and constant anxiety that our true soul mate is a shift.
The increase in depression rates and other mental health problems can also be considered through the lens of inadequacy. The life of hunters involved a constant company, a practical work which was immediately enriching (such as finding food or a construction shelter) and communities rich in tradition, in ritual and spiritual meaning. Modern technology now makes most of these optional, rather than essential things. As a result, many of us live a life disconnected from others, lacking in accomplishing and meaningless work. Given in this context, the low mood is not the failure of a broken brain, but a signal that we could miss from important aspects of human experience.
To cope with these shortcomings, some of us come back to technology. In the same way that hyperpalatable food exploits our ancient appetites, tools led by AI such as Chatgpt and Relitika began to exploit our deep desire for meaning, as well as social and romantic connection. The companies of AA themselves were surprised by the extent to which people become emotionally attached to their products. And the reports emerge that chatbots can fuel the delusions and paranoid thinking of people vulnerable to psychosis.
None of this means that the right path for humanity is to try to return to the distant past. The hunter-gatherers did not live in utopian harmony like Na’vi in Avatar. Rather, I suggest that there is a powerful explanation for many of our current physical and mental difficulties, and it is that the world has developed in a way that our biology could not follow. If you do not take this into account when you look at your own life, you expect yourself to yourself as a kind of highly optimized machine, you open the door to a deep criticism and resentment. The frustration of not being able to lose weight, the emptiness of the work that has always been told, the loneliness of modern cities – these can all feel like individual failures.
Conversely, understanding the life for which we have evolved allows us to look at our problems with more clarity and self -compassion, and can push us to better more enlightened decisions. Rather than reprimanding ourselves not being able to control our impulses, we can see them through the objective of inadequacy and start to think about useful attenuations. Some solutions are simple, such as keeping junk food, deleting social media applications or limiting screen time.
Others are more complex and need to step back to see the situation as a whole. The community, collaborative problem solving, ritual and meaning are vital ingredients for satisfactory life and will remain so, whatever the technology we invent or cultural trends boil. Thinking about how to integrate them into our lives so that they are part of your fabric, rather than optional extras, is a potentially exercise that changes life. Not because there is something wrong with us – but because we find ourselves in strange moments.
Dr. Alex Curmi is a psychiatrist, psychotherapist in training and presenter of the Thinking Mind Podcast.
Upon reading
The social brain: the psychology of the successful groups of Tracey Camilleri, Samantha Rockey and Robin Dunbar (Penguin, £ 10.99)
The evolution of desire: strategies of human coupling by David M Buss (base, £ 16.99)
Behave: the biology of humans to our best and our worst by Robert Sapolsky (Vintage, £ 12.99)
