The Shamanistic Theory of Schizophrenia: The Evidence for Schizophrenia as a Vestigial Phenotypic Behavior Originating in Paleolithic Shamanism

Abstract

Ever since the first detailed descriptions of shamans by pioneering anthropologists of the 19th century, researchers have pondered the similarities between shamanism and schizophrenia. Where some theorists have seen compelling parallels, others have dismissed such similarities as coincidence. This review draws upon the latest knowledge in medical genetics, evolutionary science, religious studies, psychology, anthropology and medical history, in order to catalogue all of the possible links between the institution of shamanism and the medical condition of schizophrenia. Major discrepancies between the two phenomena are also examined. It is concluded that schizophrenia could have possibly originated in Upper Paleolithic shamanism-a constitutional behavioral trait that may have once been adaptive for modern hominids.