Shapiro,evolution, bad childhood and epigenetic changes (Introduction)

by dhw, Monday, May 14, 2012, 11:51 (4577 days ago) @ David Turell

DAVID: Late research on methylation changing gene expression after a bad childhood; don't think this would be an evolutionary change, but the epigenetic implications are interesting:-http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304363104577390462225369908.html?KEYWORDS...-It's not just the epigenetic implications that are interesting. The article contains the following extremely complex and to me disturbing idea which has major philosophical and ethical implications:
 
"To have your fate determined by your early experiences is not much different from having it determined by your genes, and when experience acts by changing genes, the distinction vanishes."-It seems to me that there is a missing factor here. A bad childhood leaves its scars on the mind, and it's common knowledge that just as the body may influence the mind, the mind can also influence the body. If a traumatic experience changes the genes, that does not mean that the genes have caused the experience! We simply don't know the extent to which our genes determine our RESPONSE to experiences, just as we don't know the extent to which the "will" is free, but a physical trauma (experience) may be cured by physical treatment, and a mental trauma (experience) may be cured by mental treatment ... hence psychiatry. Blurring the distinction suggests that the mind is indeed indistinguishable from the body, i.e. that your "fate" does depend on your genetic makeup. This is made evident by the next paragraph:-"Yet fortunately, given medical advances, genetic determinism is not necessarily a life sentence, as those who wear glasses for shortsightedness or take growth hormone for growth problems can attest. The same will almost certainly be true for epigenetic determinism: Understanding the mechanism should bring forward possible cures."-Of course we don't understand the mechanism, but the basic premise seems to be that by removing the distinction between body and mind, and between genes and experience, we can change the former and eliminate the effects of the latter. And I'm sure we can. This is one of the preconditions for Aldous Huxley's Brave New World, in which the authorities use biological engineering and psychotropic drugs to determine people's behaviour. That's why, in spite of the obvious potential benefits, I find this train of thought disturbing.