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The Madness of Adam and Eve
This radical, highly readable and absorbing narrative leads to a new understanding of human evolution.
100,000 years ago we became human, and technical, religious, artistic, military and criminal abilities emerged. The first modern humans migrated from Africa to Eurasia and Australasia, carrying with them the genetic basis of schizophrenia, the only major illness found to the same extent in all racial groups. Modern evidence shows that families where schizophrenia is present are also exceptionaly creative in many different fields. Albert Einstein and James Joyce each had a schizophrenic child. David Horrobin draws on his knowledge of evolution, medicine and psychiatry to generate a startling hypothesis: we are human because some of us are schizophrenic and because a “touch of schizophrenia” is associated with that creativity which defines us and separates us from our nearest primate relatives.
100,000 years ago we became human, and technical, religious, artistic, military and criminal abilities emerged. The first modern humans migrated from Africa to Eurasia and Australasia, carrying with them the genetic basis of schizophrenia, the only major illness found to the same extent in all racial groups. Modern evidence shows that families where schizophrenia is present are also exceptionaly creative in many different fields. Albert Einstein and James Joyce each had a schizophrenic child. David Horrobin draws on his knowledge of evolution, medicine and psychiatry to generate a startling hypothesis: we are human because some of us are schizophrenic and because a “touch of schizophrenia” is associated with that creativity which defines us and separates us from our nearest primate relatives.
352 pages, Paperback
First published April 1, 2002
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
October 11, 2023
“Schizophrenia shaped humanity” is the startling claim of this book. At face value, no-one would be keen to agree. But, the author does indeed make an argument that it did. A 300-page argument, no less. And a long list of references to boot.
I managed to get hold of the last remaining copy of the book on Amazon UK, and here I’ll be explaining his argument, looking for holes in it, and providing my opinion.
Author David Horrobin includes several noteworthy and interesting observations in his argument. Here goes…
Following explanations of several studies on the geographic and demographic prevalence of schizophrenia, Horrobin concludes that “the problem of schizophrenia must have entered humanity prior to the time when humans divided into separate races.”
He goes on “between 60,000 years ago at the latest, or 150,000 years ago at the earliest, all human races acquired their schizophrenic inheritance. I believe that this acquisition was the single most important event in human history. I suggest that this was the break-point between our large-brained, possibly pleasant, but unimaginative ancestors, and the restless, creative, unsettled creatures we so obviously are today. Is this the true creation story?”
Horrobin was interested in how, in the 1920s, malaria appeared to cure certain schizophrenics of their symptoms. So he started looking into why that might be. He concluded that schizophrenia is, in fact, a whole-body disease, and that it’s connected with insufficient arachidonic acid (AA) and its conversion to prostaglandins, which are important for cell signalling. This AA is usually locked up in the phospholipids of cell membranes, but requires release from there in order to trigger the body to respond appropriately.
Horrobin soon had work published on “Schizophrenia as a prostaglandin deficiency disease”. However, due to the prevalence of the “excess dopamine” theory of schizophrenia, together with how pharmaceutical companies operate, Horrobin struggled to get further funding for his research.
Over time, however, this fat biochemistry theory of schizophrenia slowly began to push forward, and has led to new approaches to developing treatment. And Horrobin explains his theory further still…
“Both biblical and genetic/evolutionary accounts of the origin of modern humans agree in their insistence that there was a founding couple. The critical changes that made us human took place at first in a single offspring of a particular couple.”
Now that, in itself, is quite a statement. It’s not something I was previously aware of, and Horrobin leaves no references (as such) to back this statement up. One might assume that this is because this is already a well known fact. But if this is a well established fact, then Horrobin ought to have provided at least one reference. That said, Horrobin does provide a bibliography.
Anyway, he goes on to say “The cultural pointers on the one hand, and the molecular genetics on the other, suggest that modern humans are intellectually very different from pre-humans.”
At which point, Horrobin turns the subject to schizophrenia. But even at this point in the book, about 70 to 75 percent of the way through, Horrobin is yet to explain how this dramatic intellectual change may be attributed to schizophrenia. So, I read on…
Horrobin maintains that what makes homo sapiens so notably different from the remainder of the other homo genus, is creativity and religion, since it may have sparked such innovations as cave paintings, agriculture, weapon construction, and so on. He attributes this creativity and religious pondering to members of families with a full or partial schizophrenic genome.
Where Horrobin really lets himself down here, is that rather than provide references to specific studies which demonstrate this, he provides a bibliography instead, making it awkward and tedious for the reader to do any fact checking on this aspect of schizophrenia and creativity in families.
But Horrobin does tackle the issue of schizophrenia being so mild in early homo sapiens. He says that the worst of the effects would have been mitigated by the high fat diet that these early homo sapiens would have eaten.
In the concluding chapter of the book, Horrobin summarises the facts that pertain to his case. However, this is all circumstantial evidence, of course. We have no way of truly knowing the answers. It’s hard to know much about ancient civilization let alone the dawn of humanity.
Here are some of the ways Horrobin lets his theory down. He does not link the fat biochemistry of brain cells in schizophrenia with the other biological theories on the cause of schizophrenia, such as excess dopaminergic activity.
Horrobin also should have expanded on why schizophrenia is linked to fat biochemistry in human molecular biology. This lack of explanation is particularly damning considering he had a paper published on the subject. Although, of course, this is referenced in the bibliography.
Another issue that’s poorly addressed in the book is that schizophrenia does not boil down to genetics alone. In studies of identical twins, where each twin has the same DNA, if one has schizophrenia, the other twin only has a 30 to 50 percent chance of becoming schizophrenic.
Furthermore, I’m also not satisfied with his argument that schizophrenia shaped humanity. While I can agree that the dawn of homo sapiens may have coincided with new behaviours, curiosity, creativity and thinking outside the box, this is not the same as schizophrenia. I mean, where do the delusions and auditory hallucinations come in?
True, some of the suggested behaviour of early human-like creatures can be considered crazy. Such as going bipedal to go shoulder-deep in water to hide from mammal predators and forage for food. But this explanation does not and cannot go far enough.
Horrobin also got sidetracked to a considerable degree. Not only through discussing schizophrenia interchangeably with bipolar disorder and dyslexia, but also bringing up prison violence and psychopathy, which (as far as I know) are not considered strongly correlated.
White I am convinced that factors such as nutrition and fat biochemistry in molecular biology have played an important part in the evolution of modern humans, I am not convinced that schizophrenia was the cause of this. We don’t even know if there was a correlation between schizophrenia and human beginnings. We never truly will.
In fairness to Horrobin, he admits that his idea is possibly fantasy. But he adds that it’s something that can be disproved…
Within the later chapters, he discusses a handful of studies where schizophrenics were treated with essential fatty acids, and how this led to an improvement in symptoms. And this is information we can use, and more importantly, encourage. Especially for those who may have a genetic predisposition to the condition.
When Horrobin’s paperback arrived and I saw the yellowed pages, I wondered how old this idea was. Turns out it was published in 2001, which means that in the time that’s passed since, there may have been opportunity for further research into the idea.
So I took to Google, and the websites with the highest domain authority on the search engine results pages do maintain that essential fatty acids can improve symptoms in those with schizophrenia.
Essential fatty acids are considered valuable for preventing and/or improving the symptoms of schizophrenia to this day. So, in my view, Horrobin’s work has been valuable, even if his argument that “schizophrenia shaped humanity” holds little weight.
The role of mental disturbance in shaping humanity is an intriguing concept. And it may provide comfort to those who suffer with mental illness. But, postulating while looking back can only ever take us so far. The important lessons are the ones we can carry forward…
The clear takeaways here are not concerned with the shaping of humanity, but of the easy means that the worst symptoms of schizophrenia can be alleviated, or possibly prevented, simply through eating a diet high in unsaturated fats, and/or taking an omega-3 supplement.
3 stars because it's an interesting idea, but is not well argued. I would have loved to have read a version of this idea argued by Richard Dawkins, because it would have been considerably more convincing and well thought out and referenced.
I managed to get hold of the last remaining copy of the book on Amazon UK, and here I’ll be explaining his argument, looking for holes in it, and providing my opinion.
Author David Horrobin includes several noteworthy and interesting observations in his argument. Here goes…
Following explanations of several studies on the geographic and demographic prevalence of schizophrenia, Horrobin concludes that “the problem of schizophrenia must have entered humanity prior to the time when humans divided into separate races.”
He goes on “between 60,000 years ago at the latest, or 150,000 years ago at the earliest, all human races acquired their schizophrenic inheritance. I believe that this acquisition was the single most important event in human history. I suggest that this was the break-point between our large-brained, possibly pleasant, but unimaginative ancestors, and the restless, creative, unsettled creatures we so obviously are today. Is this the true creation story?”
Horrobin was interested in how, in the 1920s, malaria appeared to cure certain schizophrenics of their symptoms. So he started looking into why that might be. He concluded that schizophrenia is, in fact, a whole-body disease, and that it’s connected with insufficient arachidonic acid (AA) and its conversion to prostaglandins, which are important for cell signalling. This AA is usually locked up in the phospholipids of cell membranes, but requires release from there in order to trigger the body to respond appropriately.
Horrobin soon had work published on “Schizophrenia as a prostaglandin deficiency disease”. However, due to the prevalence of the “excess dopamine” theory of schizophrenia, together with how pharmaceutical companies operate, Horrobin struggled to get further funding for his research.
Over time, however, this fat biochemistry theory of schizophrenia slowly began to push forward, and has led to new approaches to developing treatment. And Horrobin explains his theory further still…
“Both biblical and genetic/evolutionary accounts of the origin of modern humans agree in their insistence that there was a founding couple. The critical changes that made us human took place at first in a single offspring of a particular couple.”
Now that, in itself, is quite a statement. It’s not something I was previously aware of, and Horrobin leaves no references (as such) to back this statement up. One might assume that this is because this is already a well known fact. But if this is a well established fact, then Horrobin ought to have provided at least one reference. That said, Horrobin does provide a bibliography.
Anyway, he goes on to say “The cultural pointers on the one hand, and the molecular genetics on the other, suggest that modern humans are intellectually very different from pre-humans.”
At which point, Horrobin turns the subject to schizophrenia. But even at this point in the book, about 70 to 75 percent of the way through, Horrobin is yet to explain how this dramatic intellectual change may be attributed to schizophrenia. So, I read on…
Horrobin maintains that what makes homo sapiens so notably different from the remainder of the other homo genus, is creativity and religion, since it may have sparked such innovations as cave paintings, agriculture, weapon construction, and so on. He attributes this creativity and religious pondering to members of families with a full or partial schizophrenic genome.
Where Horrobin really lets himself down here, is that rather than provide references to specific studies which demonstrate this, he provides a bibliography instead, making it awkward and tedious for the reader to do any fact checking on this aspect of schizophrenia and creativity in families.
But Horrobin does tackle the issue of schizophrenia being so mild in early homo sapiens. He says that the worst of the effects would have been mitigated by the high fat diet that these early homo sapiens would have eaten.
In the concluding chapter of the book, Horrobin summarises the facts that pertain to his case. However, this is all circumstantial evidence, of course. We have no way of truly knowing the answers. It’s hard to know much about ancient civilization let alone the dawn of humanity.
Here are some of the ways Horrobin lets his theory down. He does not link the fat biochemistry of brain cells in schizophrenia with the other biological theories on the cause of schizophrenia, such as excess dopaminergic activity.
Horrobin also should have expanded on why schizophrenia is linked to fat biochemistry in human molecular biology. This lack of explanation is particularly damning considering he had a paper published on the subject. Although, of course, this is referenced in the bibliography.
Another issue that’s poorly addressed in the book is that schizophrenia does not boil down to genetics alone. In studies of identical twins, where each twin has the same DNA, if one has schizophrenia, the other twin only has a 30 to 50 percent chance of becoming schizophrenic.
Furthermore, I’m also not satisfied with his argument that schizophrenia shaped humanity. While I can agree that the dawn of homo sapiens may have coincided with new behaviours, curiosity, creativity and thinking outside the box, this is not the same as schizophrenia. I mean, where do the delusions and auditory hallucinations come in?
True, some of the suggested behaviour of early human-like creatures can be considered crazy. Such as going bipedal to go shoulder-deep in water to hide from mammal predators and forage for food. But this explanation does not and cannot go far enough.
Horrobin also got sidetracked to a considerable degree. Not only through discussing schizophrenia interchangeably with bipolar disorder and dyslexia, but also bringing up prison violence and psychopathy, which (as far as I know) are not considered strongly correlated.
White I am convinced that factors such as nutrition and fat biochemistry in molecular biology have played an important part in the evolution of modern humans, I am not convinced that schizophrenia was the cause of this. We don’t even know if there was a correlation between schizophrenia and human beginnings. We never truly will.
In fairness to Horrobin, he admits that his idea is possibly fantasy. But he adds that it’s something that can be disproved…
Within the later chapters, he discusses a handful of studies where schizophrenics were treated with essential fatty acids, and how this led to an improvement in symptoms. And this is information we can use, and more importantly, encourage. Especially for those who may have a genetic predisposition to the condition.
When Horrobin’s paperback arrived and I saw the yellowed pages, I wondered how old this idea was. Turns out it was published in 2001, which means that in the time that’s passed since, there may have been opportunity for further research into the idea.
So I took to Google, and the websites with the highest domain authority on the search engine results pages do maintain that essential fatty acids can improve symptoms in those with schizophrenia.
Essential fatty acids are considered valuable for preventing and/or improving the symptoms of schizophrenia to this day. So, in my view, Horrobin’s work has been valuable, even if his argument that “schizophrenia shaped humanity” holds little weight.
The role of mental disturbance in shaping humanity is an intriguing concept. And it may provide comfort to those who suffer with mental illness. But, postulating while looking back can only ever take us so far. The important lessons are the ones we can carry forward…
The clear takeaways here are not concerned with the shaping of humanity, but of the easy means that the worst symptoms of schizophrenia can be alleviated, or possibly prevented, simply through eating a diet high in unsaturated fats, and/or taking an omega-3 supplement.
3 stars because it's an interesting idea, but is not well argued. I would have loved to have read a version of this idea argued by Richard Dawkins, because it would have been considerably more convincing and well thought out and referenced.
June 3, 2019
I'd love up-to-date research into this subject (I did a bit of a look into the literature and there hasn't been much definitively added on the subject), but as it stands it was really interesting and explores lots of concepts that could have huge implications if even half of what was claimed by the author is true
July 16, 2008
Started 5/25/08. I've owned this book for years but haven't yet read it. It's time!
July 31, 2019
An important book about the chemistry of brain fat, mental health, and human evolution.
Want to read
October 9, 2022Recommended in The Neurodiversity Reader (ed. Damian Milton, 2020, p. 52).
August 29, 2012
entertainingly engaging for an author steeped in research and ultimately the most creative take on evolution yet.
February 11, 2013
very interesting, good for the eat more fish and nuts campaign too
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews