The Evolution of Psychiatry
The article goes to great length to consider possible evolutionary explanations of autism, but never considers another possibility – Lynn Waterhouse&#x27;s argument [1][2] that ASD does not exist. Waterhouse doesn&#x27;t deny the symptoms exist – indeed, she spent much of her career trying to help children with those symptoms. She simply argues that the symptoms are caused by numerous unknown diverse causes in the brain, and the concept of a single disorder (ASD), or even a spectrum of related disorders (ASDs, the DSM-IV PDDs, and more recent ASD sub-typing proposals), isn&#x27;t helpful in understanding those causes. Waterhouse argues that in order to have the best chance of finding effective treatments for people impaired by those symptoms, researchers should abandon the idea that ASD (or even ASDs&#x2F;ASCs) is a useful concept in understanding what causes them.<p>If Waterhouse&#x27;s position is correct, then trying to find a single evolutionary explanation for numerous diverse brain conditions (that people have lumped together under a single label) is probably not a very useful approach.<p>[1] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;books.google.com&#x2F;books?id=IaFY8r0rpn8C&amp;printsec=frontcover" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;books.google.com&#x2F;books?id=IaFY8r0rpn8C&amp;printsec=fron...</a><p>[2] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;link.springer.com&#x2F;article&#x2F;10.1007&#x2F;s40489-016-0085-x" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;link.springer.com&#x2F;article&#x2F;10.1007&#x2F;s40489-016-0085-x</a>