Territory, Rank and Mental Health: The History of an Idea

Abstract

We trace the development of ideas about the relation of mood to social rank and territory. We suggest that elevated mood enabled a person to rise in rank and cope with the increased activities and responsibilities of a leadership role, while depressed mood enabled a person to accept low rank and to forego the rewards associated with high rank. This led to the concept of a trio of agonist/investor strategy sets, each consisting of escalating and de-escalating strategies, one set at each of the three levels of the triune forebrain. Depressed mood can be seen as a de-escalating (appeasement) strategy at the lowest (reptilian) level; this should facilitate de-escalation at the highest (rational) level, but sometimes this rational level de-escalation is blocked (e.g., by stubbornness, courage, pride or ambition) and then clinical depression may ensue. These evolved psychobiological mechanisms survived the partial transition from agonistic to prestige competition. We discuss difficulties which have arisen with our ideas, and their implications for clinical work and research.

Evolutionary Theories of Depression: A Critical Review

“…51 For instance, if the so-called rational neomammalian complex refuses to stop competing, the reptilian complex compels yielding via MDD. 39,40 The triune brain model is controversial, though, and flatly rejected by some textbooks 52,53 (for a defence of McLean, 51 see Cory and Gardner 54 ).…”

“…According to the social competition hypothesis, 38,39 MDD is the emotion of submission, an involuntary subordinate strategy functioning to create a subjective sense of incapacity, inhibiting aggression toward higher-ranked people; signal submission; and encourage acceptance of rank loss and promote yielding. Early formulations seemed to argue that MDD itself was functional.…”

Are Paraphilias Mental Disorders? The Case of the DSM

“…Depression, for example, can be seen as a mental disorder because it is a harmful dysfunction of our capacity to experience low mood-a mental mechanism that evolved to allow us to deal with various adverse life events (see, e.g. Price et al 2007). …”

Sur le fonctionnement psychologique pervers

“…Alors que les fonctions de territoire [5,6,16] ou de territorialisation [4,7] ont été définies à de nombreuses reprises, la théorie du rang social [14][15][16]18,21] Il convient de rappeler que la théorie du rang social est surtout utilisée en psychopathologie comme modèle explicatif de la dépression [11][12][13][14][15][16]21]. La perspective qui est la nôtre est de 8 nous intéresser à une composante du fonctionnement du sujet pervers qui le place sur un continuum à l'opposé de la dépression (rejoignant la proposition freudienne de la perversion comme mécanisme de défense face à l'affect dépressif [8] hautes compétences socio-adaptatives, nous permet de souligner la proximité relative de cette observation avec le concept psychanalytique de « clivage du moi » à la nuance décisive que la « spaltung » se joue, selon le matériel observé, dans le chef de l'individu entré en interaction avec le sujet pervers, plutôt du côté de ce dernier.…”