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E. Fuller Torrey

E. Fuller Torrey Books

Psychiatrist

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“But wait - where did the gods come from 100,000 years ago? Early Homo Sapiens certainly had conversations with other early Homo Sapiens regarding what they thought of one another, and what they thought about a third early Homo Sapiens who had insulted them, and why they were no longer on speaking terms with the other person, ad finitum, just as happens today. But you cannot have such conversations about the gods or with the gods unless you have gods.”

MindGodReligionBrainEvolutionCivilizationEvolutionary Psychology
Book:Evolving Brains, Emerging Gods: Early Humans and the Origins of Religion
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“Prior to about 40,000 years ago, hominins had been observing other hominins die for more than six million years. They were intimately acquainted with death as something that happened to others. They observed people die within their living group - children from disease, women from childbirth, men from hunting accidents, and older adults from starvation. They also occasionally encountered deceased hominins as they foraged for food or followed herds of deer. Unlike today, when the biological realities of death are relegated to the offices of medical examiners and morticians, early hominins saw corpses in all stages of decomposition, since even the occasional burial of bodies was apparently not practiced until the last 100,000 years.”

MindGodReligionBrainEvolutionHomo SapiensTerror Management Theory
Book:Evolving Brains, Emerging Gods: Early Humans and the Origins of Religion
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“The very term ['mental disease'] is nonsensical, a semantic mistake. The two words cannot go together except metaphorically; you can no more have a mental 'disease' than you can have a purple idea or a wise space". Similarly, there can no more be a "mental illness" than there can be a "moral illness." The words "mental" and "illness" do not go together logically. Mental "illness" does not exist, and neither does mental "health." These terms indicate only approval or disapproval of some aspect of a person's mentality (thinking, emotions, or behavior).”

ThinkingPersonsDoeTwoIdeasTogetherTermSpaceEmotionMistakeMoralWiseDiseaseBehaviorAspectMental HealthIllnessMental IllnessPsychologicalMentalityApprovalPurpleDisapprovalPsychiatricNonsensical
Author:E. Fuller Torrey
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