Assimilating the Forces of Biology and Culture

Countless human habits, traditions, and artifacts stem from the evolution of these three emotion systems: lust, attraction, and attachment. Among them: the nuclear family; our myriad customs for courtship; our procedures for marriage; our terms for kin; and the plots of many great operas, novels, plays, films, songs, and poems. But these brain systems also contribute to the worldwide incidence of rape, stalking, homicide, suicide, and clinical depression, as well as the frequency of adultery and divorce.

Are we puppets on a string of DNA? Can we control our sexual and family lives? Should scientists seek ways to medicate stalkers and spouse abusers? Should lawyers, judges, and legislators view the serial rapist as a chemically disabled person? What we know about the brain systems for lust, attraction, and attachment as yet suggests only directions, not definite answers.

For example, I believe that brain chemistry plays a role in many serious, violent crimes. As scientists learn more about the brain, more lawyers and judges will be obliged to take this biological component into consideration in deciding the punishment of serial rapists, stalkers who murder, and perennial spouse abusers.

I think biology plays a less consequential role in the plight of all the normal men and women who struggle with inappropriate sexual yearnings, the “roving eye,” restlessness in long relationships, and other artifacts of evolution that threaten to destroy their family lives. Here is my supposition. Along with the evolution of the brain circuits for the sex drive, romantic love, marriage, and divorce, other brain networks emerged as well. The most important was a neural system that enables us to rise above our inappropriate or inconvenient mating tendencies.

Central to this system is the prefrontal cortex, a region of the brain that lies directly behind the forehead; this expanded dramatically during human prehistory. Neuroscientists have dubbed this region of the brain the “central executive” or the “crossroads” of the mind because it has connections to many sections of the brain and body and is devoted to the active processing of information. With the prefrontal cortex (and its connections) we keep track of the myriad bits of data that register in our brains, order and weigh them as they accumulate, and find patterns in them. Using the prefrontal cortex and its connections, we also reason hypothetically, analyze contingencies, consider options, plan for the future, and make decisions.

The mind assembles data in novel patterns, so with the emergence of the prefrontal cortex, humans acquired a brain mechanism that enabled them to behave in unique ways—ways qualitatively different from behavior emanating from biology or experience alone. Indeed, given the impressive decision-making power of the prefrontal cortex, this agglomeration of brain tissue is probably the locus of what we term, variously, the self, ego, or psyche.

In other words, I believe that biology and culture—nature and nurture—are but two of the major forces shaping human behavior. The third is our psyche, our capacity for reason, choice, and self-directed action. The three forces always interact, of course. Biology predisposes us to love in general ways. Cultural experiences modify those predispositions, overriding some, accentuating others. Yet each of us assimilates the forces of biology and culture in his own fashion. We are capable of monitoring and at times overriding the power of lust, attraction, attachment, and detachment. We have evidence of that power. Some 75 percent of American men and 85 percent of American women report that they are not adulterous. Half of all Americans marry for life.

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