Biology and Culture

Abstract

How are we to think of the developmental relations between individual and social dimensions of human psychology? On the one hand, an individual's mental development depends on social engagement and socially constructed symbolic systems and institutions. On the other hand, the very existence of a social system depends on the biologically provided constitution of the individuals who make up its members. I shall consider these matters at the interface between the behavioral and social sciences through the perspective of developmental psychopathology, and, in particular, the study of autism.