Sign-In
Cart
The Evolution of life worth living: Why we choose to live
Paperback
Medical ReferenceDeath & DyingEvolution
ISBN13: 9781838343903
Publisher: C.A. Soper
Published: Feb 11 2021
Pages: 260
Weight: 0.57
Height: 0.55 Width: 5.06 Depth: 7.81
Language: English
Why do most of us enjoy being alive? Psychologist Dr C A Soper argues that a zest for life evolved as a survival necessity, ultimately because our species, and ours alone, has to live with the possibility of suicide. Suicide may have been our ancestors' most formative evolutionary problem, solutions to which have shaped the construction of the human mind and touch on almost every aspect of our day-to-day experience. The emergence of anti-suicide defences by natural selection may explain our capacity for optimism, faith, love, charity and other delights of being human. This book explains how the most pleasing features of our psychology arise from the darkest of possibilities.
Life worth living is thus traced to the evolution of suicide. A major cause of human mortality, suicide takes the lives of some million people around the world each year. The origins of the behaviour have long mystified science; despite more than a century of enquiry, science does not know why some people kill themselves, while most people don't.
Progress in suicidology has been blocked, by what Soper sees as a fundamental flaw in the field's leading paradigm - the idea that suicides happen because of some, as yet unknown, predictable process of cause and effect. A new paradigm is offered, based on evolutionary science. Suicide is reframed as an evolutionary puzzle: how is that natural selection created an animal with the capacity to wilfully kill itself? The cost is extreme; measured by biological outcomes, suicide is literally a fate worse than death.
Two existing evolutionary theories of suicide are critiqued and found wanting: a 'burdensomeness' and a 'communication' hypothesis. The behaviour is better understood, says Soper, as an unfortunate side effect of two adaptations that come together uniquely in our species. One is the aversive experience of pain, especially psychological pain - an ancient stimulus that is designed precisely to induce the animal to act to end it. The other is extraordinary intelligence of the mature human, an animal so smart that it knows it can end pain by ending its own life. When these 'pain' and 'brain' elements combine, as they do in all normal human adults, suicide would be the expectable outcome. The scientific puzzle, then, is not so much why some humans die in this way, but why the great majority of us do not.
As the book explains, most of us do not take our own lives thanks to the protection afforded by ancient evolved psychological defences. An evolutionary argument of special design is used to predict some likely characteristics of anti-suicide systems - features that would be expected based on the task that they were biologically designed to fulfil. They would block suicidal trajectories by dulling emotional pain and disabling high-level cognitive functions among people suffering from chronic emotional distress. Perhaps counter-intuitively, this analysis points to diverse varieties of mental disorder - depression, addiction, psychoses, and others - as manifestations of emergency psychological defences, labelled keepers.
Other anti-suicide defences, labelled fenders, are hypothesised to operate to ensure keepers activate only as a last resort. They work to keep most of us fairly happy most of the time, in part by furnishing each of us with a benign, but semi-illusory, enhanced reality to live in. In this light, the human tendencies for religious belief and unconditional love may be understood as part of a life-preserving system of psychological buffers.
The book's 'pain and brain' theory provides a unifying explanation for several longstanding and puzzling phenomena in human psychology. It offers a novel paradigm that could integrate and assist progress in suicide research, psychiatry and psychotherapy.
Also in
Death & Dying
On Death and Dying: What the Dying Have to Teach Doctors, Nursers, Clergy, and Their Own Families
Kbler-Ross, Elisabeth
Kubler-Ross, Elisabeth
Paperback
Before All Is Said and Done: Practical Advice on Living and Dying Well
Watson, Suzanne
Miles, Pat
Hardcover
Healing from Great Loss: Facing Pain and Grief to Recover Your Authentic Self
Clark, Ann J.
Paperback
When God Doesn't Fix It: Lessons You Never Wanted to Learn, Truths You Can't Live Without
Story, Laura
Paperback
All My Dead Cats and Other Losses: Practicing Good Grief in a Culture That Fears Mourning
Smith, S. E.
Paperback
It's Ok That You're Not Ok: Meeting Grief and Loss in a Culture That Doesn't Understand
Devine, Megan
Paperback
The Gentle Art of Swedish Death Cleaning: How to Free Yourself and Your Family from a Lifetime of Clutter
Magnusson, Margareta
Hardcover
Graceful Warrior: The True Story of a Son, a Father, and a Family Who Carried Each Other Through
Sinise, Gary
Hardcover
The Orphaned Adult: Understanding and Coping with Grief and Change After the Death of Our Parents
Levy, Alexander
Paperback
The Grief Recovery Handbook, 20th Anniversary Expanded Edition: The Action Program for Moving Beyond Death, Divorce, and Other Losses
James, John W.
Friedman, Russell
Paperback
Nobody Wants Your Sh*t: The Art of Decluttering Before You Die (New York Times Bestseller)
Condo, Messie
Hardcover
How Will I Ever Get Through This?: Evidence-Based Tools to Help You Heal from Hardship, Grief, and Loss
Hone, Lucy
Paperback
Welcome to the Afterlife: A No-Nonsense Tour for Those in Mourning or the Merely Curious with Denise, Heaven's Receptionist
Smith, Taryn Delanie
Hardcover
When the Ache Remains: Lessons on Tending to the Unfixable and Finding Beauty Anyway
Olivera, Lisa
Hardcover
In the Absence of the Ordinary: Soul Work for Times of Uncertainty--Essays on Grief, Change, and Sacred Transitions
Weller, Francis
Paperback
Finding Meaning: The Sixth Stage of Grief Workbook: Tools for Releasing Pain and Remembering with Love
Kessler, David
Paperback
Tiny Beautiful Things (10th Anniversary Edition): Reese's Book Club: Advice from Dear Sugar
Strayed, Cheryl
Paperback
The Greatest Love: Lessons for Living with Extraordinary Courage--Even After the Worst Day of Your Life
Brown, Tim
Hardcover
The Grieving Brain: The Surprising Science of How We Learn from Love and Loss
O'Connor, Mary-Frances
Paperback
The Families: 9/11 Anthology of Love, Loss and Lessons of Resilience
The Cantor Fitzgerald Relief Fund
Paperback
My Parents Are Dead: What Now?: A Panic-Free Guide to the Practicalities of Death
Robison, Becky
Paperback
Resilient Grieving, Second Edition: How to Find Your Way Through Devastating Loss
Hone, Lucy
Paperback
Liliana's Invincible Summer (Pulitzer Prize Winner): A Sister's Search for Justice
Rivera Garza, Cristina
Paperback
Through a Season of Grief: 365 Devotions for Your Journey from Mourning to Joy
Dunn, Bill
Leonard, Kathy
Paperback
Waking the Tiger: Healing Trauma: The Innate Capacity to Transform Overwhelming Experiences
Levine, Peter A.
Paperback
The Aubreigh Wyatt Story: A mother's fight for justice, love, and lasting change
Wyatt, Heather
Paperback
The Other Side of the Straitjacket: A Daughter's Story of Mental Illness and Assisted Dying
Duncan, Alicia
Paperback
From Here to the Great Unknown: Oprah's Book Club: A Memoir
Presley, Lisa Marie
Keough, Riley
Paperback
Never Can Say Goodbye: The Life of a Death Doula and the Art of a Peaceful End
Walker, Darnell Lamont
Paperback
On Death & Dying: What the Dying Have to Teach Doctors, Nurses, Clergy & Their Own Families
Kübler-Ross, Elisabeth
Paperback
Navigating Grief Workbook: Evidence-Based Exercises to Move Through Grief and Heal
Darbonne, Anna, PsyD
Paperback
Twilight of Camelot: The Short Life and Long Legacy of Patrick Bouvier Kennedy
Levingston, Steven
Hardcover
The VSED Handbook: A Practical Guide to Voluntarily Stopping Eating and Drinking
Christie, Kate
Paperback
The Secret Life of a Cemetery: The Wild Nature and Enchanting Lore of Père-Lachaise
Gallot, Benoît
Paperback
Reimagining Grief: A New Path to Finding Healing, Strength, and Joy After Loss
Bliss, Sara
Doerge, Kate
Hardcover
We Are Made of Us: Uncovering Our Hidden Family Dynamics, Rewriting Our Stories, and Returning to Ourselves
Park, J. S.
Hardcover
Understanding Your Grief: Ten Essential Touchstones for Finding Hope and Healing Your Heart
Wolfelt, Alan
Paperback
The Five Invitations: Discovering What Death Can Teach Us about Living Fully
Ostaseski, Frank
Paperback
Own Your Resilience: An Army Leader and War Widow Shares Tools to Live with Courage and Joy
Sileo, Tom
Ballou, Jennifer
Hardcover
Las Bendiciones del Quebrantamiento: Por Qué Dios Permite Que Atravesemos Tiempos Difíciles
Stanley, Charles F.
Paperback
Briefly Perfectly Human: Making an Authentic Life by Getting Real about the End /]Calua Arthur
Arthur, Alua
Paperback
The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying: The Spiritual Classic & International Bestseller: 20th Anniversary Edition
Rinpoche, Sogyal
Paperback
La Niña a la Que Se Le Vino El Mundo Encima / The Girl Whose World Came Crashing Down
Pérez Islas, Gaby
Paperback
All the Living and the Dead: From Embalmers to Executioners, an Exploration of the People Who Have Made Death Their Life's Work
Campbell, Hayley
Paperback
Final Gifts: Understanding the Special Awareness, Needs, and Communications of the Dying
Callanan, Maggie
Kelley, Patricia
Paperback
Dark Archives: A Librarian's Investigation Into the Science and History of Books Bound in Human Skin
Rosenbloom, Megan
Paperback
The Little Book of Loss Rituals: 75 Practices for Grieving, Mourning, and Healing
Sarazin, Stephanie
Hardcover
Final Exit (Third Edition): The Practicalities of Self-Deliverance and Assisted Suicide for the Dying
Humphry, Derek
Paperback
On Grief & Grieving: Finding the Meaning of Grief Through the Five Stages of Loss
Kübler-Ross, Elisabeth
Kessler, David
Paperback
The Understanding Your Grief Journal: Exploring the Ten Essential Touchstones
Wolfelt, Alan
Paperback
Comfort for the Grieving Spouse's Heart: Hope and Healing After Losing Your Partner
Roe, Gary Gary
Paperback
Cómo Curar Un Corazón Roto. Edición 10 Aniversario Tapa Dura / How to Heal a Broken Heart. 10th Anniversary Edition
Pérez Islas, Gaby
Hardcover
Celebration of Life - Family & Friends Keepsake Guest Book to Sign In with Memories & Comments: Family & Friends Keepsake Guest Book to Sign In with M
Funeral Guest Books, Briar Rose
Hardcover
Now That She's Gone: A Daughter's Reflections on Loss, Love, and a Mother's Legacy
Ohlemiller, Chelsea
Paperback
Love in the Face of Grief: Transformative Grief Practices for Maintaining Connection, Belonging, and Relationships After a Death
Hedtke Msw Acsw Phd, Lorraine
Paperback
The Good Death: A Guide for Supporting Your Loved One Through the End of Life
O'Brien, Suzanne B.
Hardcover
The Grieving Body: How the Stress of Loss Can Be an Opportunity for Healing
O'Connor, Mary-Frances
Paperback
The Wound Makes the Medicine: Elemental Remediations for Transforming Heartache
Lighthorse, Pixie
Paperback
Death Does Not Exist: What Science and Spirituality Can Teach Us about the Afterlife
Allix, Stéphane
Hardcover
Of Course I'm Here Right Now: Three Actually Helpful Things to Say to Someone Grieving
Forsythia, Shelby
Hardcover
In My Time of Dying: How I Came Face to Face with the Idea of an Afterlife
Junger, Sebastian
Hardcover
52-Week Devotional Journal for Grief: Prompts and Prayers for Navigating Loss
Bronstad, Debbra Sell, Lmft
Paperback