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A review by ilovegravy
Good Reasons for Bad Feelings: Insights from the Frontier of Evolutionary Psychiatry by Randolph M. Nesse
4.0
tldr: We suffer because not suffering might have even more dire consequences.
I read it as recommended by my supervisor at the university and for that reason my expectations for this book were a good deal higher than it managed to fulfil. That being said, I was already familiar with a lot of the theory and research explained in this book. I’m biased by my personal interest and enthusiasm for Evolutionary Psychology (EP) and I really don’t think the book would sound this convincing if I haven’t studied this branch of Psychology previously.
“Good reasons for bad feelings” had a lot of repetitive information and towards the end it was definitely rushed. I also couldn’t quite figure out what was the intended audience of this book. Nesse’s academic circle? Then it sometimes really lacked empirical evidence and I don’t mean evidence to support his theory, but evidence to show how he has arrived at the ideas that he did. Laypeople? Then it probably sounded too far-fetched. I’ve read some of the 1-2 star ratings of this book and I’m completely not surprised some people took the EP approach as a “card out of prison” and glorification of suffering. Nesse tried so hard to explain how it aims for the exact opposite, but if academics hound EP for the same misplaced belief, then it’s no wonder it appears this way to the general public as well.
It lacked depth. I get it, there’s not enough research to back it up, but what about speaking about exactly that - the gaps we need to fill out? The last few chapters seemed like Nesse got bored with writing, but still felt he has to mention the few last disorders. We can’t really convincingly explain them from an EP perspective. We cannot. But it wouldn’t take away from your expertise, Nesse, if you admitted that, you know?
The great thing about this book was author’s humorous style of writing and his enormous clinical experience. And even despite the last few unfulfilled chapters, it had a pretty humble tone to it (which some accomplished academics often forget about). I actually should give the book more positive commentary that that, but I just can’t evaluate it objectively - EP is my thing. And that might be solely why I enjoyed it so much.
I read it as recommended by my supervisor at the university and for that reason my expectations for this book were a good deal higher than it managed to fulfil. That being said, I was already familiar with a lot of the theory and research explained in this book. I’m biased by my personal interest and enthusiasm for Evolutionary Psychology (EP) and I really don’t think the book would sound this convincing if I haven’t studied this branch of Psychology previously.
“Good reasons for bad feelings” had a lot of repetitive information and towards the end it was definitely rushed. I also couldn’t quite figure out what was the intended audience of this book. Nesse’s academic circle? Then it sometimes really lacked empirical evidence and I don’t mean evidence to support his theory, but evidence to show how he has arrived at the ideas that he did. Laypeople? Then it probably sounded too far-fetched. I’ve read some of the 1-2 star ratings of this book and I’m completely not surprised some people took the EP approach as a “card out of prison” and glorification of suffering. Nesse tried so hard to explain how it aims for the exact opposite, but if academics hound EP for the same misplaced belief, then it’s no wonder it appears this way to the general public as well.
It lacked depth. I get it, there’s not enough research to back it up, but what about speaking about exactly that - the gaps we need to fill out? The last few chapters seemed like Nesse got bored with writing, but still felt he has to mention the few last disorders. We can’t really convincingly explain them from an EP perspective. We cannot. But it wouldn’t take away from your expertise, Nesse, if you admitted that, you know?
The great thing about this book was author’s humorous style of writing and his enormous clinical experience. And even despite the last few unfulfilled chapters, it had a pretty humble tone to it (which some accomplished academics often forget about). I actually should give the book more positive commentary that that, but I just can’t evaluate it objectively - EP is my thing. And that might be solely why I enjoyed it so much.