THE MISSING GENE:
Psychiatry, Heredity, and the Fruitless Search for Genes
By Jay Joseph, Psy.D.
Algora Publishing, January, 2006. Retail price $26.95 paperback, $29.95 hardcover. 324 pp.
Dear Friends and Colleagues,
I want to let you know that my second book on genetics, The Missing
Gene: Psychiatry, Heredity, and the Fruitless Search for Genes (Algora
Publishing), has been released and is available at both Amazon.com and
Barnes & Noble.com. For more information on my books and publications,
please go to www.jayjoseph.net. Below, you will find a description of The
Missing Gene.
–-Jay Joseph, Psy.D.
What causes psychiatric disorders to appear? Are they primarily
the result of people’s environments, or of their genes? Increasingly, we are
told that research has established the importance of genetic influences on
psychiatric disorders such as schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, autism, and
attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).
The Missing Gene provides a much-needed critical appraisal of
theories supporting a genetic basis for psychiatric disorders. These theories
hold that psychiatric disorders are caused by a genetic predisposition in
combination with environmental agents or events. In fact, the field of
psychiatric genetics is approaching a crisis due to the continuing failure, despite years of concerted worldwide
efforts, to identify the genes presumed to underlie the major mental disorders.
The belief that such genes exist is based on studies of families, twins, and adoptees. However, the
author shows that, contrary to accounts in popular works, these studies provide little if any scientifically
acceptable evidence in support of genetics. Moreover it is not true, as frequently reported in the popular media,
that genes for the major psychiatric disorders have already been discovered. In fact, researchers’ initial
“discoveries” are rarely replicated. As this becomes more understood, and as fruitless gene finding efforts
continue to pile up, we may well be headed towards a paradigm shift in psychiatry away from genetic and
biological explanations of mental disorders, and towards a greater understanding of how family and social
environments contribute to human psychological distress. Indeed, Kenneth Kendler, a leading twin researcher
and psychiatric geneticist for over two decades, wrote in a 2005 edition of The American Journal of Psychiatry
that the “strong, clear, and direct causal relationship implied by the concept of ‘a gene for …’ does not exist for
psychiatric disorders. Although we may wish it to be true, we do not have and are not likely to ever discover
‘genes for’ psychiatric illness.” And Peter Propping, recipient of the 2004 Lifetime Achievement Award from the
International Society of Psychiatric Genetics, wrote in 2005 as follows: “Whereas genetically complex traits are
being successfully pinned down to the molecular level in other fields of medicine, psychiatric genetics still awaits
a major breakthrough.”
The author devotes individual chapters to ADHD, autism, and bipolar disorder, where he argues that,
contrary to frequent claims that these conditions are “heavily genetically influenced,” there exists little evidence
that they have a genetic foundation. Looking specifically at autism, despite the near-unanimous opinion that it
has an important genetic component, the evidence cited in support of this position is stunningly weak. It consists
mainly of family studies, which cannot disentangle the potential influences of genes and environment, and four
small methodologically flawed twin studies whose results can be explained by non-genetic factors. Not
surprisingly, then, over a decade of autism gene finding research has come up empty.
The Missing Gene is an important book because theories based on genetic research have a profound
impact on both scientific and public thinking, as well as on social policy decisions. In addition, genetic theories
influence the types of clinical treatments received by people diagnosed with psychiatric disorders. Yet, as the
author demonstrates, these theories do not stand up to critical examination.
Like the author’s previous work, The Gene Illusion: Genetic Research in
Psychiatry and Psychology Under the Microscope, this will be a controversial book, and
is sure to spark intense discussion among people interested in the causes of psychiatric
disorders. As in The Gene Illusion, the author challenges many positions viewed by
mainstream psychiatry and psychology as established facts. In the process, he shows
that textbooks and other authoritative sources sometimes provide misleading or
inaccurate accounts of the research put forward as supporting the genetic position. The
author concludes that it is unlikely that faulty genes play a role in causing the major
psychiatric disorders.
The Missing Gene provides an enormously important alternative to currently
popular theories in psychiatry. It is destined to play an important part in public and
scholarly discussions of genetic factors’ possible role in causing human psychological distress.
Table of Contents
Chapter 1)
Chapter 2)
Chapter 3)
Chapter 4)
Chapter 5)
Chapter 6)
Chapter 7)
Chapter 8)
Chapter 9)
Chapter 10)
Chapter 11)
Introduction. The Twin Method: Science or Pseudoscience?
ADHD Genetic Research: Activity Deserving of Attention, or Studies Disordered by
Deficits?
A Critique of the Spectrum Concept as Used in the Danish-American Schizophrenia
Adoption Studies.
Pellagra and Genetic Research.
A Generation Misinformed: Psychiatry and Psychology Textbooks’ Inaccurate
Accounts of Schizophrenia Adoption Research.
Irving Gottesman’s Schizophrenia Genesis: A Primary Source for Misunderstanding
the Genetics of Schizophrenia.
Autism and Genetics: Much Ado About Very Little.
The 1942 “Euthanasia” Debate in the American Journal of Psychiatry.
The Twin Method’s Achilles Heel: A Critical Review of the Equal Environment
Assumption Test Literature.
Bipolar Disorder and Genetics.
Genotype or Genohype? The Fruitless Search for Genes in Psychiatry.
Contact Information:
Publisher:
Author:
Ordering:
Algora Publishing. Website: www.algora.com. E-mail: editors@algora.com.
Jay Joseph, Psy.D., P.O. Box 5653, Berkeley, CA, 94705-5653, USA. E-mail:
jayjoseph22@aol.com. Website: www.jayjoseph.net.
Bookstores and other retailers can order The Missing Gene from Ingram other major North
American distributors.
Jay Joseph, Psy.D., is a licensed psychologist practicing in the San Francisco Bay Area. Since 1998, he has published many
articles in peer-reviewed journals, where he has focused on genetic theories in psychiatry and psychology. He is currently
an Associate Editor of Ethical Human Psychology and Psychiatry, and an Assessing Editor of The Journal of Mind and
Behavior. His first book, The Gene Illusion: Genetic Research in Psychiatry and Psychology Under the Microscope, was
published in 2003 in the United Kingdom by PCCS Books. This was followed by a 2004 North American edition published
by Algora.