Some of us, most of us, take what science tells us very seriously. Our view of ourselves, and of others, is heavily informed by what we believe is the scientific position. If it turns out that we are little more than our genes, that we are biochemical robots, then we must face up to the truth, dispiriting as it may be, and deal with it as best we can. We must not shirk. The philosopher J.R. Lucas said: `Modern man is inclined to be a metaphysical masochist, drawn to any world-view that denies his humanity by cutting him down to merely animal or thingly size.' In the face of genetic determinism, we are many of us masochists, and nearly all of us half-believers. Our `thingly size' is the size of a gene.
Is this masochism really necessary? Is this view of ourselves really demanded by current science? Addressing the fields of psychiatric and behavioural genetics, Jay Joseph argues that the genetic determinism so taken for granted in modern times is not based on sound science. This is a serious and controversial claim. Many people become angry if you even so much as suggest that a psychiatric disorder may not be genetic. Strong arguments are therefore needed. With the knowledge that he is militating against a well-entrenched orthodoxy, Joseph has written this extremely detailed, rigorously argued book, dedicating many of its chapters to lengthy critical assessments of original research papers. While some may be put off by the rather pedantic level of argumentation, it is, to my mind, absolutely necessary; and if you are willing to put the time in, occasionally exhilarating. It is too easy for genetically oriented researchers to blithely dismiss serious criticism as the work of know-nothing `armchair critics' with ideological agendas. Joseph is no armchair critic. Although he is a clinical psychologist and not a research scientist, his doctoral thesis was a critical examination of the schizophrenia twin studies literature, and the majority of his publications since then have been dedicated to this very specific, and very important, area. This is one of those publications. It is the first of a pair of books dedicated to psychiatric and behavioural genetics, the other being the equally excellent
The Missing Gene
. (This review is an altered version of my 'The Missing Gene' review, available on this website.) As both books make clear, Joseph is often more familiar with the foundational research of psychiatric genetics than the researchers themselves.
The large majority of this book's contents are devoted to trenchant scientific analysis. Joseph's critique of the Equal Environment Assumption is a supreme example of logical analysis. Here Joseph cuts to the quick of psychiatric and behavioural genetics, because if the EEA is invalid, as Joseph cogently argues, then the vast majority of twin studies done to date are scientifically useless. When one considers their many other, more particular, invalidating flaws (biased statistical manipulation, the post hoc redefinitions of the disorder under study to achieve statistical significance, among many others) the case for the genetic transmission of psychiatric disorders is about as scientifically compelling as phrenology, and have lead, and still lead, to medical treatments just as dubious and far more dangerous than the blood-letting of yore.
Most of this book is dedicated to scientific, conceptual and historical analyses of the schizophrenia twin studies. There is a fascinating chapter on the misunderstandings and attendant misuses of the heritability concept, and an informative chapter on intelligence. The latter, however, is not as detailed as it could be; most of the book's time is concerned, and rightfully so, with schizophrenia research, it being psychiatric genetics's oldest and most influential field, and the one in which Joseph is a real expert. While using cogent reasoning and analysis to come to generally sound conclusions, I think this chapter could be expanded upon in order to come slightly closer to matching the detail of the chapters on schizophrenia. Explication of the work of K. Anders Ericsson, for example, would strengthen the chapter's positive case for the environmentalist view of intelligence, and also establish the compartmentalisation of cognitive ability, which runs counter to the 'general intelligence' of the IQ doyens. Though the book is already very long, and I wouldn't want to see any of the chapters shortened, so perhaps I'm asking for too much.
There is much more to this book than a one thousand word review can do justice to. Joseph's work has convinced me that the well-publicised claims about the genetic determination of psychiatric disorders and psychological attributes are based more on politics, rhetoric and second- and third-hand information than sound science. It took both of Joseph's complex and detailed books to convince me. Vague humanistic platitudes, while comforting for a time, are hard to sustain against a countervailing science. It is liberating to know that, in the case of psychiatric and behavioural genetics, the `countervailing science' is largely built on air, a sort of tabloid science, and that the evidence, in fact, supports a more open view, where human beings are genuine individuals, not shambling automata, whose psychological difficulties are not the fault of their broken genes, but caused by well-known, and repairable, psychological and environmental factors. I will end this review as I began it: with a quotation from J.R. Lucas, former president of the British Society for the Philosophy of Science. His writings on human identity and value are among the best I've ever read, and show that to be scientific does not imply belief in the brutal pessimism of reductionist science, of which psychiatric and behavioural genetics are complementary parts. I am confident that Joseph would agree with the following passage.
`Each [of us] is a definite individual, ultimately responsible for what he decides to do, while being also an indeterminate shimmering of different personalities, revealed and developed in different personal relationships. Each is unique, of infinite complexity, transcending all stereotypes and neat classification, while needing also to be a safe pair of hands, who can be relied on to do his bit when required.'
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