Fattori comuni a colloquio interiore, altruismo, condizioni subcliniche di malattie mentali alla luce di evidenze biologiche e intuizioni di artisti

It is suggested that some unique human mental capabilities on one hand have been crucial for the evolutionary success of Homo Sapiens and for the development of his complex and so different social organizations, on the other hand have represented a new target for mental diseases. Furthermore, it is put forward a new concept to describe some cases of evolutionary maladaptation, namely the “mis-exaptation” concept, which is derived from the Gould Vrba concept of exaptation (Gould & Vrba, 1982). The special human mental capability considered in the present paper is the “inner speech”. As it will be shown, too an intense inner speech not only is an obstacle to act (see below, Shakespeare and Leopardi), but it may be also a fertile soil where mental disturbances can germinate. It will also be discussed the possible evolutionary value for the population of the appearance in some subjects of mis-exadaptive traits related to the inner speech, namely the altruistic behaviour and some subclinical forms of mental diseases. As a matter of fact, data will be reported demonstrating a possible link between some cases of borderline schizophrenia and bipolar depression with creativity. Finally, a possible solution for the evolutionary-genetic paradox posed by altruism and schizophrenia will be suggested on the basis of the cryptic genetic repertoire, which is likely present in the Homo Sapiens and has a fundamental role for evolvability. Whenever possible, a parallel analysis will be carried out between bio-medical data and hypotheses and intuitions of philosophers and great novelists.