Wright mentions the concept of the “environment of evolutionary adaptation,” or EEA. This idea says that a trait, and its associated gene(s) will be present today if they were adaptive in the environment where our ancestors lived, regardless of their usefulness today. In Wright's words, “We aren't designed to stand on crowded subway platforms, or to live in suburbs next door to people we never talk to, or to get hired or fired, or to watch the evening news. This disjunction between the contexts of our design and of our lives is probably responsible for much psychopathology, as well as much suffering of a less dramatic sort.”
Given how different the modern American environment is from that of the EEA, and that our technologies and thus lifestyle are evolving at an ever-increasing pace, what should we expect for the future of psychopathology if Wright is correct in asserting this effect? Does evolutionary biology give us clues? Could studies be designed to isolate those aspects of the modern environment that cause genes to express in the most troubling ways? Do you have any theories as to which aspects might cause the most trouble? Why?
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