Posted by Squiggles on May 11, 2007, at 15:22:05
In reply to Re: genetic basis for mental illness, posted by Klavot on May 11, 2007, at 15:09:09
> The renowned evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins points out that the analogy of one's DNA being like a blueprint for your body is a poor analogy. Every part of a blueprint corresponds to a particular component of the building or machine that it represents. He says a better analogy would be that your DNA is a *recipe* for the construction of your body. Individual letters or words in a recipe for a cake do not correspond to particular parts of the cake. Likewise, individual genes in one's DNA do not correspond to particular characteristics in your body. Thus, it is unlikely that there would be such a thing as a "depression" gene or a "bipolar" gene that can be switched on or off. If depression and bipolar disorder do have a genetic basis, such basis would represent as a complex combination of gene variations.
>
> KlavotInteresting. I don't know much about biology.
The "recipe" analogy would have to allow for exogenous factors intervening with an initial pristine plan. Interference--chemical or environmental could warp that plan. However, such factors would have to be gross, as for example, in teratogenic forms of a definite species form, like a cat with too many toes, or Down's Syndrome, or bicephalus. Such things are rare.Bipolar and depression may actually be "normal", in the sense that they are analogous to hair colour or eye colour. It is only the social context that make them weird, whereas the teratogenic forms are obviously an interference with the recipe.
In the end, the proof is in the pudding. :-)
Squiggles
poster:Squiggles
thread:757534
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20070509/msgs/757832.html