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There was a fascinating story in the NYT science section yesterday that I didn't fully understand. It presents a new genetic theory of major mental illness as being caused by a battle between the father's sperm and the mother's egg. The idea is that in the fetus' brain something goes wrong with children who develop either autism disorders on one end of the spectrum or mood disorders and psychosis on the other (everything from bipolar illness to schizophrenia). The researchers say these seemingly unrelated disorders are just different expressions of the same genetic glitch. If the father's contribution wins, the child will have autism: "a fascination with objects, patterns, mechanical systems, at the expense of social development." If the mother wins, the child's brain will be wired toward "the psychotic spectrum, toward hypersensitivity to mood, their own and others'." This theory leaves me confused about people who inherit, say, bipolar disorder from their father. But more than that, it feels strangely reductive: Fathers convey an obsession with objects and systems; mothers make you hysterical.
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