Jonathan Kaplan
All in the Genes?
Blueprint: How DNA Makes Us Who We Are
By Robert Plomin
Allen Lane 266pp £20 order from our bookshop
Robert Plomin is a pioneer of modern behaviour genetics and Blueprint is unabashedly an exercise in cheerleading for the field. His enthusiasm can be contagious and his exposition of the surprising and sometimes seemingly paradoxical discoveries in his discipline over the last three decades or so can be fascinating. But that enthusiasm sometimes gets the better of him: the book glosses over too many of the weaknesses of human behaviour genetics as it is currently practised and Plomin sometimes makes claims that, even if technically true, are at the very least deeply misleading.
In his prologue, Plomin asks us to imagine a ‘completely reliable and unbiased’ ‘fortune-telling device’ that can ‘predict psychological traits like depression, schizophrenia and school achievement’ from ‘the moment of your birth’. He then assures us that contemporary behaviour genetics will provide the same insights as such a device. A
Sign Up to our newsletter
Receive free articles, highlights from the archive, news, details of prizes, and much more.@Lit_Review
Follow Literary Review on Twitter
My latest children's round up for @Lit_Review feat. @LissaKEvans WISHED, @MissDePlume SMALL!, @skyemc_kenna's HEDGWITCH, @emmac2603 ESCAPE... @PhilipPullman's IMAGINATION...
https://literaryreview.co.uk/there-be-giants
Very happy to make my @Lit_Review debut with a review of @WillWiles "The Last Blade Priest" a fast-paced story set in an immersive world with nuanced inter-group dynamics and humane characters
https://literaryreview.co.uk/mountain-duel
I have a review of Hugh Brody’s powerful memoir Landscapes of Silence in the latest @Lit_Review https://literaryreview.co.uk/cold-comforts-3