‘Almost nothing is firmly established’ A History of Heredity and Genetics in Mental Health Science

Background
For more than a century, scientists have tried to find the key to causation of mental ill health in heredity and genetics. The difficulty of finding clear and actionable answers in our genes has not stopped them looking. This history offers important context to understanding mental health science today.

Methods
This article explores the main themes in research on genetics and inheritance in psychiatry from the second half of the nineteenth century to the present day, to address the question: what is the history of genetics as a causative explanation in mental health science? We take a critical historical approach to the literature, interrogating primary and secondary material for the light it brings to the research question, while considering the social and historical context.

Results
We begin with the statistics gathered in asylums and used to ‘prove’ the importance of heredity in mental ill health. We then move through early twentieth century Mendelian models of mental inheritance, the eugenics movement, the influence of social psychiatry, new classifications and techniques of the postwar era, the Human Genome Project and Genome Wide Association Studies (GWAS) and epigenetics. Setting these themes in historical context shows that this research was often popular because of wider social, political and cultural issues, which impacted the views of scientists just as they did those of policymakers, journalists and the general public.

Conclusions
We argue that attempting to unpick this complex history is essential to the modern ethics of mental health and genetics, as well as helping to focus our efforts to better understand causation in mental ill-health.

For a succinct timeline of the history of psychiatric genetics, alongside the history of other proposed causes for mental ill-health, visit: https://historyofcauses.co.uk/


This article explores the history of efforts in science to find the causes of mental ill health in heredity and genetics. It explains that, over the past 150 years, scientists have been unable to find clear and actionable answers to mental illness in our genes. This history offers important context to understanding mental health science today. In particular, it raises ethical questions. Historically, links between genetics and mental ill-health have had negative consequences for those diagnosed with mental illness: imprisonment, sterilisation and even murder. We argue that genetic research has often proved popular because of wider social, political and cultural concerns, such as the economic position of those with enduring mental illness. This means that attempting to unpick this complex history is essential to the modern ethics of mental health and genetics, as well as helping to better focus our efforts to understand causation in mental ill-health.

The research is part of a wider project on the history of proposed causes for mental ill-health. To view this as a succinct timeline, which includes a strand on psychiatric genetics, visit: https://historyofcauses.co.uk/