Genes and Behavior

Product Description

In recent years, the subject of genes and their influence on human behavior has become increasingly controversial as concerns about the racist use of genetics, discriminatory eugenics, and neurogenetic determinism have grown. In this major new book, eminent scientist Professor Sir Michael Rutter gets behind the hype to provide a balanced and authoritative overview of the genetic revolution and its implications for understanding human behavior.

Rutter sets out in layman's terms what genetic science has discovered to date, explaining exactly what genes do, how much is nature and how much is nurture. He argues that nature and nurture are not truly separate, giving powerful illustrations of how the two interact to determine our behavior. He also considers the implications of genetic findings for policy and practice. This thought-provoking account will inform public debate about the implications of the Human Genome Project and, more broadly, the field of genetic science.
Product Details

* Amazon Sales Rank: #1840981 in Books
* Published on: 2006-04-08
* Original language: English
* Number of items: 1
* Binding: Hardcover
* 280 pages

Editorial Reviews

Review
"In this highly readable and intellectually honest book, the latest advances in molecular and behavior genetics are brought to bear on our knowledge of psychology and psychiatry. The end product is an eloquent exposition of "genetic realism" in the context of behavior, and will surely be of interest to all who are curious about the forces that give rise to human behavior, both normal and abnormal." Charles A. Nelson III, Harvard Medical School

"Genes and Behavior: Nature-Nurture Interplay Explained manages to be comprehensive, lucid, and clear, without oversimplifying what is an inherently complex subject. It enables a clinician to understand the fundamentals of genetics as they apply to medicine and a geneticist to understand the environmental determinants of the phenotype. What makes it entirely remarkable is that it is comprehensible to generalists and yet has much to teach specialists." Leon Eisenberg, Harvard Medical School

"No one but Michael Rutter could have written this remarkable, compelling book. At last we have a clear and balanced treatment of the role genes play in the variations among individuals in behavioral traits and psychosocial pathologies. Rutter rescues the reader from the excesses of both the "evangelical" geneticists and the environmental extremists. He draws on his vast knowledge of the pertinent theories and empirical work, and takes the reader beyond the limited scope of statistical twin and adoption studies into the recent work of molecular geneticists, illuminating some of the complex biological processes that govern the ways in which genetic factors can work or fail to work in influencing behavioral outcomes, and how their effects can be modified by experience. Rutter presents a carefully reasoned case for co-action of genetic and environmental factors at all stages of development. A must-read for anyone seriously interested in nature/nurture issues." Eleanor E. Maccoby, Stanford Center on Adolescence

"Rutter offers a highly critical and extremely clear and well-written review of the current state of the nature/nurture argument as it relates to human behaviour and psychiatric illness......it is written in a way that should be easily accessible to the general reader as well as to the specialist. And, since its subject matter affects all of us, it should be read widely." Times Higher Education Supplement

"The question of how genes and the environment interact should be an area of interest to all social and physical science; it should not remain solely the domain of geneticists. For anyone interested in developing a greater understanding of the mechanics of this interaction, this book would make an excellent choice." Jonathan Wells, Young Minds Magazine, July/August 2006

"Michael Rutter, the United Kingdom's gift to world psychiatric excellence deals with this issue head-on in an amazingly readable and highly accurate book about genes and behaviour....This book is a gem." Myrna M. Weissman, Psychological Medicine, 36

"If you want an inspiring contribution to the debate in this highly topical area or research and also want to learn about the most up-to-date approaches to genetic research, then this is the book to choose." Svenn Torgersen, Nature, Volume 442

"The author deftly deals with the extreme arguments of genetic and environmental evangelists. It is a lucid, balanced tour de force. Highly recommended."
Journal of Clinical Psychiatry

Review
"In this highly readable and intellectually honest book, the latest advances in molecular and behavior genetics are brought to bear on our knowledge of psychology and psychiatry. The end product is an eloquent exposition of “genetic realism” in the context of behavior, and will surely be of interest to all who are curious about the forces that give rise to human behavior, both normal and abnormal." Charles A. Nelson III, Harvard Medical School


“Genes and Behavior: Nature–Nurture Interplay Explained manages to be comprehensive, lucid, and clear, without oversimplifying what is an inherently complex subject. It enables a clinician to understand the fundamentals of genetics as they apply to medicine and a geneticist to understand the environmental determinants of the phenotype. What makes it entirely remarkable is that it is comprehensible to generalists and yet has much to teach specialists.” Leon Eisenberg, Harvard Medical School


"No one but Michael Rutter could have written this remarkable, compelling book. At last we have a clear and balanced treatment of the role genes play in the variations among individuals in behavioral traits and psychosocial pathologies. Rutter rescues the reader from the excesses of both the "evangelical" geneticists and the environmental extremists. He draws on his vast knowledge of the pertinent theories and empirical work, and takes the reader beyond the limited scope of statistical twin and adoption studies into the recent work of molecular geneticists, illuminating some of the complex biological processes that govern the ways in which genetic factors can work or fail to work in influencing behavioral outcomes, and how their effects can be modified by experience. Rutter presents a carefully reasoned case for co-action of genetic and environmental factors at all stages of development. A must-read for anyone seriously interested in nature/nurture issues." Eleanor E. Maccoby, Stanford Center on Adolescence

"Rutter offers a highly critical and extremely clear and well-written review of the current state of the nature/nurture argument as it relates to human behaviour and psychiatric illness......it is written in a way that should be easily accessible to the general reader as well as to the specialist. And, since its subject matter affects all of us, it should be read widely." Times Higher Education Supplement

"The question of how genes and the environment interact should be an area of interest to all social and physical science; it should not remain solely the domain of geneticists. For anyone interested in developing a greater understanding of the mechanics of this interaction, this book would make an excellent choice." Jonathan Wells, Young Minds Magazine, July/August 2006

"Michael Rutter, the United Kingdom's gift to world psychiatric excellence deals with this issue head-on in an amazingly readable and highly accurate book about genes and behaviour....This book is a gem." Myrna M. Weissman, Psychological Medicine, 36

"If you want an inspiring contribution to the debate in this highly topical area or research and also want to learn about the most up-to-date approaches to genetic research, then this is the book to choose." Svenn Torgersen, Nature, Volume 442

"The author deftly deals with the extreme arguments of genetic and environmental evangelists. It is a lucid, balanced tour de force. Highly recommended."
Journal of Clinical Psychiatry

From the Back Cover
In recent years, the subject of genes and their influence on human behavior has become increasingly controversial as concerns about the racist use of genetics, discriminatory eugenics, and neurogenetic determinism have grown. In this major new book, eminent scientist Professor Sir Michael Rutter gets behind the hype to provide a balanced and authoritative overview of the genetic revolution and its implications for understanding human behavior.

Rutter sets out in layman's terms what genetic science has discovered to date, explaining exactly what genes do, how much is nature and how much is nurture. He argues that nature and nurture are not truly separate, giving powerful illustrations of how the two interact to determine our behavior. He also considers the implications of genetic findings for policy and practice. This thought-provoking account will inform public debate about the implications of the Human Genome Project and, more broadly, the field of genetic science.
Customer Reviews

Best Introduction5
This is arguably the best introduction to the complex world of how genes affect human personality and behavior. It is far from an easy "read" and doesn't shy from the use of technical terms (an advantage for those who wish to go further but an impediment to more casual readers). The prose is somewhat leaden. Still -- it is a remarkable achievement. Rutter is a distinguished psychiatrist who has made major contributions to our understanding of psychiatric disorders and is well respected across the psychology-psychiatry divide.
The book accomplishes several goals. First, it provides a limited but useful survey of what is presently known about the genetic basis of mental disorders and personality/intelligence. Second (and more usefully) it discusses the logic of genetic causality and surveys the various methods used to uncover same. Third (and most importantly), it provides a balanced and nuanced discussion of all the ways that genes and environmental factors interact to produce human psychology. As such it provides a useful corrective to those who believe that genes are destiny and that there is a "gene (or genes)" for most human characteristics. The human genome project and associated research has now made it clear that the various ways genes affect humans are far more complex than anyone realized even 20 years ago. Unfortunately this has not become part of the popular wisdom, and so this book becomes essential reading for those interested in this fascinating and important topic. The study of psychology will increasingly be dominated by genetic science (and its sister discipline of neurobiology) and lay people as well as professionals will need a book such as this to help them on their way to a more complete understanding of how this is likely to play out. There are many books on the genetic underpinnings of psychological processes, but most are either simplistic or too technical for general consumption. An exception would be the books by Matt Ridley. The Rutter book is less accessible that the Ridley books, but more technically accomplished.

A Brilliant Book by a Brilliant Individual5
I was once in the cafeteria having lunch with some friends, when Sir Michael Rutter came in for a moment to get a sandwich. One of our group leaned over and said, "That man's written more books than I've read. See, he doesn't even have time to sit down for lunch!"

It was said in jest, but my friend had a point: Mike has been re-creating several fields of psychology and psychiatry since the 1960s. Although best known as a child psychiatrist, he has made enormous contributions to the study of child development and the interactions between genes and the environment.

This book is a superb summary of some of the enormous changes that have transformed our understanding of genetics over the last two decades by someone who has been in the thick of it, as an investigator, mentor and teacher.

One of the biggest problems in psychology has been the polarization between the proponents of Nature and Nurture. Most folk psychology is driven by the notion that human behavior can be explained by a combination of learning and the environment, and largely neglects the role of genetics. So in that view, an alcoholic develops the illness because he observed alcohol abuse in the family, and genetics have nothing to do with it. The other extreme view is that the whole of human behavior can be reduced to sets of interacting genes. Both positions are unhelpful. The tension between psychosocial researchers and behavior geneticists has been sustained by the different theoretical perspectives that the two use to describe similar concepts. Most experts now understand that the key to understanding problems like the susceptibility and resilience to mental illness is to understand the interaction of genes and the environment over the lifespan of an individual. This book shows exactly how we can do that.

What this book does, and what makes it unique, is that it presents in