“In good times, when material resources are abundant and women have plentiful social support, maternal negativity has little place in the lives of women. However, in times of scarcity and/or when women are unsupported, negative feelings can emerge to color the emotional palette and behavior of mothers.”
Source: Evolutionary Psychiatry: Current Perspectives on Evolution and Mental Health
“The standard model of schooling in which 20 or more young people of the same age are taught in classrooms for about 5 hours a day on most days of the year for 10 years certainly runs counter some of our evolved behavioral strategies.”
Source: Evolutionary Psychiatry: Current Perspectives on Evolution and Mental Health
“From the perspective of life history theory, a speeded-up metabolism, less trust, less relaxation and more suspicion and risk-taking might be adaptive for abusive homes or violent neighborhoods. In such environments there is little emotional security or expectation that things will work out well.”
Source: Evolutionary Psychiatry: Current Perspectives on Evolution and Mental Health
“It is also important to note that not all pathological presentations are caused by the environment. A child may have underlying difficulties such as intellectual disabilities or other neurodevelopmental disorders. On the other hand, just because a child has survived unscathed does not mean that the environment was benign. We know that some children are naturally less sensitive to environmental influences and as such are more resilient to harsh environments.”
Source: Evolutionary Psychiatry: Current Perspectives on Evolution and Mental Health
“Humans can survive in a wide range of physical environments, from the Arctic to rainforests to the Sahara. They can also survive in a wide range of emotional environments, from loving to neglectful to violent ones.”
Source: Evolutionary Psychiatry: Current Perspectives on Evolution and Mental Health
“What I know is she came to me in the kitchen after dinner yesterday and embraced me strongly, as though she were my own daughter. For a moment, her body’s warmth made me think I was holding you. I almost screamed with longing. I felt in my endless veins each one of the thousands of miles separating me from you, and my blood flowed fast, rushing to reach you in Greece. My Koula, I miss you every hour. In my dreams, I search all over for you, I eat the universe to find you.”
Source: My Xanthi
“It was as though he no longer needed to drink to forget whatever it was he could not remember. Now he could not remember that he had ever forgotten anything. Perhaps that was why for the first time after that old day in France he was beginning to miss the presence of other people. Shadrack had improved enough to feel lonely. If he was lonely before, he didn't know because the noise he kept up, the roaring, the busyness protected him from knowing it.”
Source: Sula
“For the first time, she wept for herself.
She wept for all she'd lost.
She wept for being the one who was left behind.”
Source: An Unexpected Journey: Homeward Bound Part One
“If there was one thing familiar to her, it was the way loneliness tended to creep in, kick off its shoes, and make itself right at home.”
Source: Bernice Runs Away
“Solitude makes you strong but lonely too.”