Randolph M. Nesse, M.D.
Randolph M. Nesse, M.D.
- Research Professor of Life Sciences, and Founding Director (2014-2019), The Center for Evolution and Medicine, Arizona State University
- Professor Emeritus, Departments of Psychiatry and Psychology, and Institute for Social Research, The University of Michigan
- Founding President: The International Society for Evolution, Medicine, and Public Health
nesse@asu.edu @RandyNesse on Twitter and FaceBook
New Resources
New Resources
Lecture on Evolutionary Psychiatry for a class at Oxford University
Article on Tacit Creationism in Emotions Research Video now posted.
Podcast from the Jordan Harbinger show
Podcast by Thoughts on Record about how evolutionary thinking can help psychotherapists
Video from 2020 Grand Rounds at the U Arizona Department of Psychiatry
The Economist "Books of the Year" Buy on Amazon
- This book will surely change the face of medicine -- and deservedly so. —Robin Dunbar
- This is a wise, accessible, highly readable exploration of an issue that goes to the heart of human existence. —Robert Sapolsky
- A bold book that would have made Darwin proud. Cutting-edge and compassionate at the same time —Lee Dugatkin
- It is no exaggeration to say that he opens the door to a new paradigm in thinking about human beings and their conflicted lives. —Michael Ruse
- A provocative book full of intriguing explanations about human nature in all its strengths and weaknesses. —Carl Zimmer
- Someday nearly all psychiatry will be identified as evolutionary psychiatry. If so, Randolph Nesse’s book should be seen as the field’s founding document. — David Barash in The Wall Street Journal
Recent
Recent
Click here for a list of articles by topic
- Podcast on the Jordan Harbinger show.
- Nesse: Tacit Creationism in Emotions Research, 2020 Video.
- Simplify Podcast about why painful emotions persist, 2019
- Video of a Nov 2019 talk on why disease genes persist
- Nesse & Schulkin: An evolutionary medicine perspective on pain and its disorders. PhilTransRS B, 2019
- Nesse: Core Principles for Evolutionary Medicine, 2019
- Nesse & Natterson-Horowitz: Evolutionary Medicine, a great way to teach biology, 2019
- Nesse, Stein: How evolutionary psychiatry can advance psychopharmacology, 2019
- Nesse, Dawkins: Evolutionary Medicine chapter in Oxford Textbook of Medicine, 2019
- Tinbergen's Four Questions, EMPH, 2019
- The Smoke Detector Principle, EMPH, 2019
- Grunspan, et al., Core Concepts of Evolutionary Medicine, 2017
- Evolutionary foundations for psychiatric research and practice, 2017
- Nesse Anorexia: A Perverse Effect of Trying to Control the Starvation Response BBS 2017
- Nesse, Finch, Nunn: Evolution, Sleep, & Alzheimer's Disease, 2017
- Five Evolutionary Principles for Understanding Cancer, 2017
- Thomas, Nesse, et al. Evolutionary Ecology of Organs, Trends in Cancer, 2016
- Social selection is a powerful explanation for prosociality. BBS, 2016
- Evolution and Stress, 2016
- Hauser, Nesse, Schwarz: Lay Theories of Health and Illness, 2016
- Fried & Nesse: Depression sum scores don't add up. BMC Med 2015
- Evolutionary psychology and mental health. 2015
- Will computers ever evolve to be as wonderful as dogs?
- How Stupid Not to Have Thought of That!
- A general ''Theory of Emotion'' is neither necessary nor possible, Emotion Review, 2014
- Fried & Nesse: Depression is more than the sum of its parts, Psy Med, 2013
- Aktipis & Nesse: Evolutionary foundations for cancer biology, Evolutionary Applications, 2013.
- Nesse, et al. Evolutionary Molecular Medicine, J Mol Medicine, 2012
- Nesse & Stein: Towards a genuinely medical model for psychiatric nosology, BMC Medicine, 2012
- Antolin, et al. Evolution and medicine in undergraduate education: A prescription for all biology students, Evolution, 2012
- Natural selection is simple, but the systems It shapes are unimaginably complex, EDGE, 2012
- Evolution: A basic science for medicine, 2012
- Nesse & Jackson: Evolutionary foundations for psychiatric diagnosis, 2011
- Ten questions for evolutionary studies of disease vulnerability, Evol Apps, 2011
- Why has natural selection left us so vulnerable to anxiety and mood disorders? Can J Psychiatry, 2011
- Evolutionary perspectives in health and medicine, PNAS, 2010
- Social selection and the origins of culture, 2010
Highly Cited
Highly Cited
Click here for a list of articles by topic
- An evolutionary perspective on psychiatry, 1984
- Why We Get Sick: The New Science of Darwinian Medicine, 1995.
- Maladaptation and natural selection, 2005
- Nesse, Dawkins: Evolutionary Medicine chapter in Oxford Textbook of Medicine, 2019
- Five evolutionary principles for understanding cancer 2017.
- On the difficulty of defining disease, 2001
- Natural selection and the regulation of defensive responses-Smoke Detector Principle 2005.
- What good is feeling bad? The evolutionary utility of psychic pain, 1991.
- The dawn of Darwinian medicine, 1991
- What is Evolutionary Medicine?
- Making evolution a basic science for medicine, PNAS, 2009
- Cliff-edged fitness functions and schizophrenia, 2004
- How to Test an Evolutionary Hypothesis, 2011
- Tinbergen's Four Questions Organized, TREE, 2013
- The Smoke Detector Principle, EMPH, 2018
- Core Concepts of Evolutionary Medicine, 2017
- Evolutionary explanations of emotions, 1990
- Evolutionary foundations for psychiatric research and practice, 2018
- Evolutionary psychology and mental health. 2015
- Why has natural selection left us so vulnerable to anxiety and mood disorders?, 2011
- Social selection and the origins of culture, 2010
- Time for truly biological psychiatry, Brit. J. Psychiatry, 2009
- Explaining depression: Neuroscience is not enough, evolution is essential, 2009
- Evolution, emotions and emotional disorders, American Psychologist, 2009
- Evolution: Medicine's most basic science, Lancet, 2008
- Runaway social selection for displays of partner value and altruism, Biological Theory, 2007
- The Great opportunity: Evolutionary applications to medicine and public health, Applied Evolution, 2008
