Draft:Joseph Polimeni

Joseph Polimeni is a Canadian psychiatrist who has published influential papers on the evolutionary origins of psychiatric conditions. He is best known for his book Shamans Among Us: Schizophrenia, Shamanism and the Evolutionary Origins of Religion (2012). Polimeni argues that in traditional societies, the social space of shamanism is primed by genetic factors, and in industrialized economies labelled as schizophrenia. His book contains experimental data in support of the theory. Polimeni however does not advocate that individuals with psychosis avoid conventional psychiatric treatments. Among experts, the theory may have more dissenters than supporters. A reviewer from the Canadian Journal of Psychiatry (2014) stated “Polimeni adduces various explanations and proofs for his theory, none of which are, to me, very satisfying.”

In the 20th anniversary edition of Anthony Stevens and John Price’s ground-breaking book Evolutionary Psychiatry (1996/2016), the authors proposed that their group-splitting theory of schizophrenia and the shaman theory of schizophrenia were compatible, and only describing different phases of a tribe’s existence.

Polimeni has also published several papers proposing that humor and laughter represent an evolutionary adaptation. Polimeni and J. P. Reiss were the first to methodically estimate the minimum evolutionary age of humor (about 40,000 years). Polimeni’s most recent humor paper, Jokes Optimise Social Norms, Laughter Synchronises Social Attitudes invokes Thomas Veatch’s social violation’s theory of humor to argue that humor is an evolutionary adaption; allowing individuals to play with opposing ideas about social norms, while injecting a lightness to the discourse, and thereby, reducing intratribal violence.