Madness and Genetic Determinism: Is Mental Illness in Our Genes?

The book covers important topics in the psychiatric genetics (PG) field. Many of these have been overlooked in mainstream accounts, and many contemporary PG researchers have omitted or whitewashed the eugenic and "racial hygiene" origins of the field. The author critically analyzes PG evidence in support of genetic claims which, given the lack of gene discoveries, are based mainly on the results of psychiatric twin and adoption studies. Given that the evidence in favor of genetic influences is much weaker than mainstream sources report, due to serious issues in twin and adoption research, the author points to environmental factors, including trauma, as the main causes of conditions such as schizophrenia.

Patrick D Hahn is an Affiliate Professor of Biology at Loyola University Maryland, USA, and a freelance writer.

Chapter 1: "Cut the Problem off at the Roots": The Beginning.

1.1: "A Social Menace"1.2: "Our Race Must Rapidly Deteriorate" Chapter 2: "He Would Have Sold his Soul to the Devil": Ernst Rüdin and Family Studies.2.1: Task Force 22.2: "Mercy Death"Chapter 3: "Final Solution": Franz Kallmann and Twin Studies.3.1: "Bullheaded Oafs"3.2: "Safely on the March"Chapter 4: "Dire Birth": The Story of the Genain Sisters.4.1: "I Will Find You Wherever You Go"4.2: "A Conscientious Public Official"Chapter 5: Adoption Studies.Chapter 6: "It's Nobody's Fault": The Mass-Marketing of Mental Illness.6.1: The Re-branding of Psychiatry6.2: "DNA Roulette"Chapter 7: The Human Genome Project Era.7.1: "The Worst Disease Affecting Manking"7.2: "Awash in Genes"Chapter 8: "Born Schizophrenic": The Story of January Schofield.8.1: "The Risperdal Didn't Work"8.2: "Her Full Potential Might be Lost"8.3: "The Overriding Factor is Love for the Child"Chapter 9: Blaming the victim": Trauma and Psychosis.9.1: "Infantile Fantasies"9.2: "When Blame is Shifted Outward, So Is Rage"9.3: "Not Just Triggers"9.4: "The Myth of the Schizophrenogenic Mother"Chapter 10: "We Must Take Great Care": The Asylum Era.10.1: "Moral Therapy"10.2: "The Most Grievous of Human Diseases"10.3: "The Kitchen is Not a Drugstore"10.4: "Dead Bodies"Chapter 11: "To Redeem the World": Frieda Fromm-Reichmann and Chestnut Lodge.11.1: Rose Garden11.2: "The Depths of an Inferno"Chapter 12: "I Actually Wanted to Help": Ronald Laing and Kingsley Hall.12.1: "Listening to Nutcases"12.2: "No One Cared"12.3: "A Double Bind"Chapter 13: Soteria House and Open Dialogue Therapy.13.1: "A Crisis in Living"13.2: A Cure for SchizophreniaChapter 14: The Ghosts of Rüdin and Kallmann.