The Winter of Our Modern Discontent: A Critical Essay on "The Evolution of Despair

Turn on the TV set any hour of the day and there will most likely be a commercial on airing the latest drug claiming to cure all our emotional ills. These ads have become ubiquitous in our culture, largely because the social ailments which they promise to cure are as equally common. Mental disorders, such as clinical depression, as well as suicide or maladaptive, pathological behaviors, have become so common, it's hard to imagine the human race ever not being so "unhappy." And yet, according to Robert Wright's article for Time magazine, "The Evolution of Despair," not only is depression and anxiety unnatural, it isn't even a necessary aspect of our evolutionary design. In other words, depression and anxiety is a contemporary and very modern problem.

Given what we do know of our earliest ancestors, it is hard to imagine how such debilitating illnesses as depression and anxiety might have been a necessary component in our evolution. The earliest homos were geared toward survival, which, in evolutionary terms, meant passing favorable genes from one generation to the next. Therefore, depression, which might likely lead to suicide, would not have been conducive in terms of natural selection. And yet, feelings which lead to depression-grief, sadness or dejection-were natural. All emotional outputs are the result of the social structure built around the tribe. According to the article, they also improved chances for survival, because "natural selection imbued our minds with an infrastructure for friendship, including affection, gratitude and trust" (Wright 53). Anthropologists refer to this as "reciprocal altruism." Thus, it is only natural that affectionate feelings have their polar opposites in regards to sadness and grief, when faced with a tragic loss, or antagonism or disappointment when those relationships turn sour or fail to live up to expectations.