Mental Illness: A New Double-Helical Twist

Paper Summary:

This paper describes an event of the last century that changed our perspective on mental illness. It argues that the discovery of the structure of DNA by Watson and Crick in 1953 ultimately led to the diathesis stress model of modern psychology. This model is one of the most pervasive and pragmatic ways to view mental illness and has spurred tremendous amounts of research across an innumerable amount of menta illnesses. The paper shows that it is the ultimate compromise to the Nature vs. Nurture debate.

From the Paper:

"Our conception of mental illness was irrevocably changed by the publication of a short article in the British journal Nature in 1953. The pioneering work of three outstanding researchers had culminated in human kind's first three-dimensional conception of Deoxyribose Nucleic Acid, the fundamental unit of mammalian genes, themselves the fundamental unit of reproduction, of genetics, of life itself. The effects of this paper upon the study of mental illness were not immediately apparent. However, this new conception of something so basic and tangible having such a prominent role in life helped provide strong empirical support for the 'nature' side of the age-old Nature v. Nurture debate. This reconception ultimately metamorphed into the 'diathesis-stress' model of mental illness, a prominent and pragmatic tool that is currently used today across a wide variety of mental diseases. Without this earlier pioneering work, such a model might not ever have existed."

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