The modular mind and psychiatry: toward clinical integration with a focus on self-disorders
Frontiers in Psychology April 25, 2025 Gheorghe Ilie, Adrian V. Jaeggi
Evolutionary psychology's modular view of the mind, which sees it as a collection of specialized information-processing modules shaped by natural selection, can be integrated with clinical psychiatry. The descriptive psychopathology of self-disorders offers evidence for this modular view, as a dysfunctional minimal self may reveal the mind's modular architecture to conscious awareness. The modular perspective also illuminates intrapsychic conflicts, and evidence from neuropsychiatric syndromes supports this view, providing a basis for classifying mental disorders.