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The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals: Darwin's forgotten masterpiece

Part of: BJPsych Advances Memory Lane Articles

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 September 2023

Riadh Abed Open the ORCID record for Riadh Abed [Opens in a new window]  and
Paul St John-Smith
Riadh Abed*
Affiliation:
A retired consultant psychiatrist, medical director and honorary senior clinical lecturer at the University of Sheffield, and is the former (founding) chair of the Evolutionary Psychiatry Special Interest Group at the RCPsych. He is currently working for the Ministry of Justice's Mental Health Tribunal Service, Sheffield, UK.
Paul St John-Smith
Affiliation:
A retired consultant psychiatrist (Single Point of Access Team, Hertfordshire Partnership University Foundation Trust, St Albans, UK) and is the current chair of the Evolutionary Psychiatry Special Interest Group at the RCPsych.
*
Correspondence Riadh Abed. Email: [email protected]
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Summary

The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals has been considered Charles Darwin's forgotten masterpiece and is his only book on psychology. It is also the first ever systematic application of Darwinian theory to the expression of emotions and has been considered by some to be the foundational text of evolutionary psychology. This article explores some key concepts in the book and gives reasons why both psychiatry and psychology can benefit greatly from becoming better acquainted with this work.

Keywords

Emotional expressionDarwinDarwinian theoryevolutionary biologyethology
Type
Memory Lane
Information
BJPsych Advances , Volume 30 , Issue 3 , May 2024 , pp. 192 - 194
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Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2023. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of Royal College of Psychiatrists

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References

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