Why Zebras Don't Get Ulcers by Robert M. Sapolsky

Author:Robert M. Sapolsky [Sapolsky, Robert M.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Stress, Stress (Physiology), Health & Fitness, Psychology, Success, Stress; Psychological, Adaptation; Psychological, Stress (Psychology), General, Stress Management, Self-Help, Personal Growth, Healthy Living
ISBN: 9780805073690
Google: EI88oS_3fZEC
Publisher: Macmillan
Published: 2004-09-15T00:00:00+00:00

The Human Realm: A Cautionary Note

There are, by now, some fairly impressive and convincing studies linking human personality types with stress-related diseases. Probably the best place to start, however, is with a bit of caution about some reported links that, I suspect, should be taken with a grain of salt.

I’ve already noted some skepticism about early psychoanalytic theorizing that linked certain personality types with colitis (see chapter 5). Another example concerns miscarriages and abortions. Chapter 7 reviewed the mechanisms by which stress can cause the loss of a pregnancy, and one hardly needs to have experienced that personally to have an inkling of the trauma involved. Thus, you can imagine the particular agony for women who miscarry repeatedly, and the special state of misery for those who never get a medical explanation for the problem—no expert has a clue what’s wrong. Into that breach have charged people who have attempted to uncover personality traits common to women labeled as “psychogenic aborters.”

Some researchers have identified one subgroup of women with repeated “psychogenic” abortions (accounting for about half the cases) as being “retarded in their psychological development.” They are characterized as emotionally immature women, highly dependent on their husbands, who on some unconscious level view the impending arrival of the child as a threat to their own childlike relationship with their spouse. Another personality type identified, at the opposite extreme, are women who are characterized as being assertive and independent, who really don’t want to have a child. Thus, a common theme in the two supposed profiles is an unconscious desire not to have the child—either because of competition for the spouse’s attention or because of reluctance to cramp their independent lifestyles.

Many experts are skeptical about the studies behind these characterizations, however. The first reason harks back to a caveat I aired early in the book: a diagnosis of “psychogenic” anything (impotency, amenorrhea, abortion, and so on) is usually a diagnosis by exclusion. In other words, the physician can’t find any disease or organic cause, and until one is discovered, the disorder gets tossed into the psychogenic bucket. This may mean that, legitimately, it is heavily explained by psychological variables, or it may simply mean that the relevant hormone, neurotransmitter, or genetic abnormality has not yet been discovered. Once it is discovered, the psychogenic disease is magically transformed into an organic problem—“Oh, it wasn’t your personality after all.” The area of repeated aborting seems to be one that is rife with recent biological insights—in other words, if so many of last decade’s psychogenic aborters now have an organic explanation for their malady, that trend is likely to continue. So be skeptical of any current “psychogenic” label.

Another difficulty is that these studies are all retrospective in design: the researchers examine the personalities of women after they have had repeated abortions. A study may thus cite the case of a woman who has had three miscarriages in a row, noting that she is emotionally withdrawn and dependent on her husband. But because of the

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