Mental Darwinism and the evolution of the emotion-processing mind.
The cognitive mental module with which humans process and adapt to emotionally charged environmental or triggering events is identified as the emotion-processing mind. The current architecture of this mental module presents several anomalous features. In an effort to clarify their basis, the evolution of this module is traced for the 6,000,000-year history of hominid existence. In addition, the nature of its current adaptive resources are explored as a way of introducing mental Darwinism, the concept that the emotion-processing mind is an adaptive entity that operates according to the principles of universal Darwinism.
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Nathan S. Kline Institute for Psychiatric Research, Orangeburg, NY 10023, USA.
D005075:Biological Evolution; D003071:Cognition; D004644:Emotions; D006801:Humans; D008960:Models, Psychological; D011574:Psychoanalytic Theory; D011575:Psychoanalytic Therapy