Because social roles are built into our genes

In a Novel Theory of Mental Disorders, Parents’ Genes Are in Competition – NYTimes.com

A strong bias toward the father pushes a developing brain along the autistic spectrum, toward a fascination with objects, patterns, mechanical systems, at the expense of social development. A bias toward the mother moves the growing brain along what the researchers call the psychotic spectrum, toward hypersensitivity to mood, their own and others’.

oh, and all mental disorders are genetically based.

There is apparently a tiny bit of evidence here in terms of genetic imprinting, but even there the descriptions are about how caregivers and doctors perceive the patients, not what’s going on inside.

We’ll see just what fruitful real hypotheses come out of this. (Oh, and in general, failure of imprinting leads to really big, serious problems. So unless you’re going to find out about how some genes are imprinted a lot and some just a little, all in the sperm and the egg, you’re kinda s.o.l.)

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