I would love to read a more detailed explanation of the theory that schizophrenia is related to outgroup intolerance. I have been diagnosed with schizotypal personality disorder and am extremely eager to understand it. The presentation of the theory in this interview is very compressed, and I struggle to understand it.
Hi Jonah thank you for your comment, here are a few references to give you more detail regarding the evolutionary theories behind psychosis and schizophrenia. I hope they are helpful:
Thanks! I get the outgroup intolerance hypothesis and the aberrant salience hypothesis. But what I don't get is how they interact. How does the presence of threatening outgroups change how our salience network works?
Hi Jonah we reached out to Riadh who replied below:
Hi Jonah,
Thanks for raising this query.
In formulating the Modified Aberrant Salience Hypothesis (MASH) we combined the proximate (Aberrant Salience Hypothesis) with the Outgroup Intolerance Hypothesis. The reformulation involved widening the concept of 'toxic stress' to include childhood trauma and also a redefinition of the domains of salience into the social and physical environment. We proposed that the aberrant salience most significant in the aetiology of schizophrenia (and non-affective psychosis generally) is in the social domain rather than in the non-social, physical world.
The hypothesis proposes that toxic stress at critical developmental stages can lead to dysfunction in the social Salience Evaluation System and this can then progress to psychosis/schizophrenia as the system becomes overloaded and overactivated.
Also, it is worth noting that it is not only the excessive exposure to strangers and outgroup members but also the subjective feeling of outgroup status that can be the toxic stress.
It is worth adding that the environmental stresses interact with other vulnerabilities within the individual some of which are likely to be genetic.
Thanks! It does help. I hope you'll take a look at my story "The Blind Chicken Scramble," where I describe the cultural differences between my family and the culture of the city where I grew up. I might have interpreted the whole city as a kind of outgroup, and that might have contributed to my schizotypal personality disorder. https://jonahogilwy.substack.com/p/the-blind-chicken-scramble?r=loua
I would love to read a more detailed explanation of the theory that schizophrenia is related to outgroup intolerance. I have been diagnosed with schizotypal personality disorder and am extremely eager to understand it. The presentation of the theory in this interview is very compressed, and I struggle to understand it.
Hi Jonah thank you for your comment, here are a few references to give you more detail regarding the evolutionary theories behind psychosis and schizophrenia. I hope they are helpful:
https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/the-british-journal-of-psychiatry/article/theories-on-the-evolutionary-persistence-of-psychosis/3EFF00B9E5820BB2410938D56462FED2
https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/irish-journal-of-psychological-medicine/article/can-the-new-epidemiology-of-schizophrenia-help-elucidate-its-causation/3681DE0322F5C708E0346C732F54A7EB
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s40806-024-00384-5
https://epsig.substack.com/p/the-modified-aberrant-salience-hypothesis
Thanks! I get the outgroup intolerance hypothesis and the aberrant salience hypothesis. But what I don't get is how they interact. How does the presence of threatening outgroups change how our salience network works?
Hi Jonah we reached out to Riadh who replied below:
Hi Jonah,
Thanks for raising this query.
In formulating the Modified Aberrant Salience Hypothesis (MASH) we combined the proximate (Aberrant Salience Hypothesis) with the Outgroup Intolerance Hypothesis. The reformulation involved widening the concept of 'toxic stress' to include childhood trauma and also a redefinition of the domains of salience into the social and physical environment. We proposed that the aberrant salience most significant in the aetiology of schizophrenia (and non-affective psychosis generally) is in the social domain rather than in the non-social, physical world.
The hypothesis proposes that toxic stress at critical developmental stages can lead to dysfunction in the social Salience Evaluation System and this can then progress to psychosis/schizophrenia as the system becomes overloaded and overactivated.
Also, it is worth noting that it is not only the excessive exposure to strangers and outgroup members but also the subjective feeling of outgroup status that can be the toxic stress.
It is worth adding that the environmental stresses interact with other vulnerabilities within the individual some of which are likely to be genetic.
I hope that this helps.
Thanks! It does help. I hope you'll take a look at my story "The Blind Chicken Scramble," where I describe the cultural differences between my family and the culture of the city where I grew up. I might have interpreted the whole city as a kind of outgroup, and that might have contributed to my schizotypal personality disorder. https://jonahogilwy.substack.com/p/the-blind-chicken-scramble?r=loua