What is the New Science of Mental Health?

For most of us mental health clinicians, whether we're a clinical social worker, psychologist, or psychiatrist, we combine evidence from research with our clinical experience to address the needs and challenges presented by our patients. That is the typical science of mental health these days, which is a quantum step ahead of when the field did not look at evidence so much, something that changed around the new millennium.

As a psychotherapist, I do the same, because interventions like motivational interviewing, relational therapy, and solutions-focused therapy really work. I tell my social work students that we need to have a "toolbox" of interventions at the ready to help people where they are, either that day or over a period of time.

But I add something else in my understanding mental health and interventions: evolution and natural selection. Nothing makes sense without it.

Like our number of fingers and toes, our skin color, the amount of hair on our bodies, and our reaction to the obnoxious smell of rotting garbage, each human characteristic and function serves a purpose to our individual and collective survival as a species. So, too, are the constellation of thoughts, emotions, and behaviors we call our psyche.

Our minds have been shaped by evolution and natural selection to help our species survive, giving us exceptional intellect to compete with other physically stronger species. Our need and ability to connect with one another has also been shaped by the forces of evolution to help our species live well in an environment of competition.

This is true, especially, in the evolution and natural selection of our emotions. The primary emotion JOY evolved to tell us what's good for us, good for our survival, and good for the species. We feel the joy of love in positive relationships, and we feel the joy of success in school, jobs, and other endeavors. The other three primary emotions of ANGER, FEAR, and SADNESS also evolved tell us what's not good for us, like sadness from losing someone special or the fear of financial instability.

Clinically speaking, exaggerated fear becomes anxiety and related disorders, and exaggerated sadness (especially combined with hopelessness) becomes depression. But both still serve a purpose in our survival, individually and collectively, as we learn what to avoid, what hurts, and what needs to change in our experiences. And we can then see our psychology -- our emotional system -- as functional responses to what's happening around us.

So this blog will explore issues in mental health from this perspective -- the new science of mental health -- that combines clinical experience, scientific research, and evolution for solutions that have meaning, are grounded in natural principles, and just plain work.

It's an exciting and positive change from the pathology of our contemporary perspective. And it creates a path toward discovering lasting and effective solutions.