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Good Reasons for Bad Feelings: Insights from the Frontier of Evolutionary Psychiatry

Book by Randolph M. Nesse · 3 quotes · Psychopathology, Evolutionary Psychology, Mismatch

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Good Reasons for Bad Feelings: Insights from the Frontier of Evolutionary Psychiatry Quotes

“Plato warned that pursuing pleasure leads to unhappiness. The Buddha taught that desires can never be satisfied. Every religion provides advice about how to get off the hedonic treadmill, leaving its emotional baggage behind. However, such advice is like advice about diets: correct, well-meaning, plentiful, and, for good evolutionary reasons, well-nigh impossible to actually follow.”

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Book:Good Reasons for Bad Feelings: Insights from the Frontier of Evolutionary Psychiatry
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“The suffering that accompanies nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, cough, fever, fatigue, pain, anxiety, and low mood motivates escape from a current bad situation and avoidance of future similar situations. Individuals who do not experience physical pain accumulate injuries and usually die by early adulthood. People who don’t feel bad when pursuing unreachable goals spend their lives in contented useless efforts. More low mood might help their genes, but a clinic to boost low mood would be about as popular as a clinic to help people feel more anxious.”

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Book:Good Reasons for Bad Feelings: Insights from the Frontier of Evolutionary Psychiatry
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