Multifunctional Religious Systems and Perturbed Dynamics of Psychological Wellbeing
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| Year of publication | 2020 |
| Type | Article in Periodical (without peer review) |
| MU Faculty or unit | |
| Citation | |
| Description | Kevin Flannelly presents an ambitious book that connects evolutionary approaches to the study of human psychopathology with the study of various facets of religious beliefs, revealing comprehensive correlational evidence for the buffering effects of religious belief against mental disorders. The author has my full support in applying evolutionary theories to the understanding of human psychology and, especially, psychopathology, which is not yet as common as it could/should be. As Flannelly shows, evolutionary theory has a great potential to improve our understanding of mental disorders by revealing how various disorders spring from evolved cognitive mechanisms or are a sign of their dysfunction. In this commentary, I will focus on the problematic aspects of correlational evidence presented in the target book and suggest ways to disentangle the causal relationship between religious beliefs and mental health by implementing the theory of dynamical systems (Strogatz, 1994). |
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