title: The Missing Gene: Psychiatry, Heredity, And the Fruitless Search for Genes
author:  Jay Joseph 
description: A clinical psychologist based in San Francisco, Joseph examines and finds serious flaws in the family, twin, and adoption studies generally used to support a genetic basis for schizophrenia, autism, bipolar disorder, and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. He argues that in failing to control for environmental influences, such kinship studies lead to overestimation of the likelihood of a genetic basis for the target disorder. He also documents questionable methodological practices and motives for the research. In the last chapter, Joseph contends that molecular genetic research in psychiatry has failed to find specific genes that cause psychiatric disorders because such genes are unlikely to exist. Joseph's analyses of the family, twin, and adoption studies are exhaustive, if somewhat repetitive, and he does a good job reminding the reader of the difficulties of conducting and interpreting this research. But although Joseph would have the reader abandon the search for biological causes of psychiatric disorders, he provides little evidence that the search for environmental causes is any more fruitful. Summing Up: Optional. Graduate students, researchers, faculty, and professionals. -- C. R. Timmons, Drew University --Choice<br /><br />THEORIES based on genetic research are having a profound impact on both scientific and public thinking, as well as on policy decisions and the treatments received by people diagnosed with psychiatric disorders. Joseph s last book, The Gene Illusion, challenged the evidence for a genetic basis for schizophrenia. In this new book, he extends his scope from schizophrenia to ADHD, autism and bipolar disorder, challenging positions viewed by mainstream psychiatry and psychology as established facts and calling for greater emphasis on how family, social and political environments contribute to human psychological distress. --Human Givens Journal Volume 13, No. 3 2006<br /><br />The genetics revolution, if you can call it that, has been going on now for about twenty years. Great advances have been made in connecting genetic defects to physical illnesses, or more specifically to vulnerability to illnesses. There has been a great deal of effort expended to try to find a genetic component to the mental illnesses. In this book Dr. Joseph reports that any evidence relating to the genetic basis of mental disorders is stunningly weak. The author claims, that 'it is very possible that genes for diagnoses such as schizophrenia, ADHD, autism, and bipolar disorder are not, as researchers often write, elusive, but that they are non existent.' The trouble with this book is that it is theoretically impossible to prove a negative. And there is just enough evidence that some of these mental illnesses tend to occur more frequently in some families than in others. Some forms seem to have genetic components, but researchers still know very little why this occurs. The book makes good sense, but could be overturned immediately by the next announcement. The good points about this book are that it is very readable and opens the subject up to we interested laymen. It gives a good analysis of Dr. Joseph's opinions, and he knows a lot more about this than I do. Still, he is a clinical psychologist, not a research scientist. If you do a search on Amazon for 'Genetics Mental Illness' you'll get a lot of entries. Most of these are quite expensive and clearly relate to ongoing or even proposed research. --Books-On-Line
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  ## 5\. The Persistence of the Belief that Madness is Hereditary
  
  
  
  
  
  For more than a century geneticists and social scientists have been trying to
  prove that mental illness is hereditary. Today most professionals and lay
  people believe that the hereditary nature of schizophrenia has been proven by
  accumulated evidence. However, a review of that evidence shows that such proof
  is far from conclusive. It is suggested, therefore, that the stubborn
  insistence on the genetic theory is itself the problem. A universal tendency
  to sweep under the rug the dark side of humanity leads to biased research.
  
  
  
  
  
  ### Introduction
  
  
  
  
  
  Recently news of a research project was leaked to all the major news services
  and television networks. The media quickly jumped to conclusions, blaring out
  headlines like, “New Genetic Link to Homosexuality Found.” Actually, a
  researcher in California, David Hamer, had discovered a possible link, but had
  not yet