The National Psychologist. All rights reserved.
Few days go by without data about the relationship between the brain, genes, and behavior.
As the human genome project gathers momentum and heads toward completion within the next few years, those associated with the project and those who hope to harvest the bounty of information and financial reward grow ever more enthusiastic. It is not unusual to hear and read of new discoveries that will demonstrate that all human behavioral patterns are genetically determined and, thus, subject to change by means of genetic manipulation. Even the most common pharmaceutical interventions can be seen as genetic manipulation. The emerging field of genetic psychiatry has now catalogued many of the old diagnostic categories, previously explained as results of developmental events. Some of the new catalog entries seem more credible than others.