Curated introductory resources
Where to start with evolutionary perspectives on mental health and disorder: our own publications, then books, articles, video and audio from across the field.
Before Evolution: The State of Mental Health
Eleven sections on the state of mental health research, treatment and policy, each ending with concrete, evolution-informed recommendations.
Prospectus of Projects for Funding
A specific, costed list of research, clinical, and training initiatives grounded in evolutionary thinking about mental health.
FEMH on YouTube
Filmed interviews with leading members of our advisory board and founding team, and an edited trailer to introduce the field.
Books
Good Reasons for Bad Feelings
Randolph Nesse, a father of the field, provides an accessible overview of evolutionary psychiatry.
Evolutionary Psychopathology
Marco Del Giudice’s book is more academic than Nesse’s, and beyond providing his own evolution-informed framework for understanding a broad range of mental disorders, provides a comprehensive review of many hypotheses in the field.
Evolutionary Psychiatry: Current Perspectives on Evolution and Mental Health
Published by Cambridge University Press, edited by Riadh Abed and Paul St John-Smith, this academic volume contains 20 chapters across a broad range of topics in the field.
Textbook of Evolutionary Psychiatry and Psychosomatic Medicine: The Origins of Psychopathology
Martin Brüne’s textbook contains core introductory materials as well as a review of evolutionary approaches to various mental disorders.
Articles
The Evolution of Psychiatry
Adam Hunt, in Works In Progress magazine, provides an accessible introduction to some core principles and promises of evolutionary psychiatry for the general audience.
Evolutionary psychiatry: foundations, progress and challenges
Randolph Nesse, in the World Psychiatry academic journal, summarizes the field with many academic references for further reading.
Evolution and Psychiatry
Gurjot Brah and Henry O’Connell run a Substack containing various articles and interviews with psychiatrists and researchers working in the field.
Video and Audio
EPSIGUK YouTube Channel
This channel hosts recordings of events and lectures from the Royal College of Psychiatrists Evolutionary Psychiatry Special Interest Group and the World Psychiatric Association’s Section on Evolutionary Psychiatry.
Evolving Psychiatry Podcast
This podcast hosts interviews and solo episodes covering core topics and thinkers of relevance to evolutionary perspectives on mental health, aimed at a general audience. Also on YouTube, Apple Podcasts and other podcast players.