A psychotherapist’s look into the social brain

The survival of humans, and primates in general, largely hinges on predicting the social behavior of others. Consistently, the human brain is specialized for detecting salient sensory characteristics (e.g., facial expressions or tone of voice) and processing representations of others' intentions. This functional and neuroanatomical specialization, often referred to as ‘social brain’, is well-established and has found extensive application in diverse fields over the past 25 years. While comparative ethology confirms that the phylogenetic growth of the neocortex is directly associated with increased social complexity in primates, evolutionary psychopathology shows that the most distinctive disorders of Homo sapiens are associated with impairments in the very mentalizing function characteristic of the social brain. In this chapter, an evolutionarily informed model of the social brain is presented to support the conceptualization and treatment of human psychopathology. More precisely, this model highlights the importance of considering evolutionary trade-offs between traits that favor either individual or collective fitness, and underscores the interpersonal perspective as the sole essential one on salutogenesis and psychopathology in humans.