Genes and Behavior

Reviews / Votes

"In this highly readable and intellectually honest book, the latest advances in molecular and behavior genetics are brought to bear on our knowledge of psychology and psychiatry. The end product is an eloquent exposition of "genetic realism" in the context of behavior, and will surely be of interest to all who are curious about the forces that give rise to human behavior, both normal and abnormal." Charles A. Nelson III, Harvard Medical School "Genes and Behavior: Nature - Nurture Interplay Explained manages to be comprehensive, lucid, and clear, without oversimplifying what is an inherently complex subject. It enables a clinician to understand the fundamentals of genetics as they apply to medicine and a geneticist to understand the environmental determinants of the phenotype. What makes it entirely remarkable is that it is comprehensible to generalists and yet has much to teach specialists." Leon Eisenberg, Harvard Medical School "No one but Michael Rutter could have written this remarkable, compelling book. At last we have a clear and balanced treatment of the role genes play in the variations among individuals in behavioral traits and psychosocial pathologies. Rutter rescues the reader from the excesses of both the "evangelical" geneticists and the environmental extremists. He draws on his vast knowledge of the pertinent theories and empirical work, and takes the reader beyond the limited scope of statistical twin and adoption studies into the recent work of molecular geneticists, illuminating some of the complex biological processes that govern the ways in which genetic factors can work or fail to work in influencing behavioral outcomes, and how their effects can be modified by experience. Rutter presents a carefully reasoned case for co-action of genetic and environmental factors at all stages of development. A must-read for anyone seriously interested in nature/nurture issues." Eleanor E. Maccoby, Stanford Center on Adolescence "Rutter offers a highly critical and extremely clear and well-written review of the current state of the nature/nurture argument as it relates to human behaviour and psychiatric illness......it is written in a way that should be easily accessible to the general reader as well as to the specialist. And, since its subject matter affects all of us, it should be read widely." Times Higher Education Supplement "The question of how genes and the environment interact should be an area of interest to all social and physical science; it should not remain solely the domain of geneticists. For anyone interested in developing a greater understanding of the mechanics of this interaction, this book would make an excellent choice." Jonathan Wells, Young Minds Magazine, July/August 2006 "Michael Rutter, the United Kingdom's gift to world psychiatric excellence deals with this issue head-on in an amazingly readable and highly accurate book about genes and behaviour....This book is a gem." Myrna M. Weissman, Psychological Medicine, 36 "If you want an inspiring contribution to the debate in this highly topical area or research and also want to learn about the most up-to-date approaches to genetic research, then this is the book to choose." Svenn Torgersen, Nature, Volume 442