On aims and methods of psychiatry – a reminiscence of 50 years of Tinbergen’s famous questions about the biology of behavior

BACKGROUND: In 1963, Nicolaas Tinbergen published an article on “the aims and methods of ethology” in which he identified a fundamental framework for the scientific inquiry into the understanding of biological phenomena. In particular, he emphasized to not only study what he called the “proximate” causes, that is, mechanism and ontogeny of a given trait, but to include evolutionary explanations, i.e., the phylogeny and adaptive properties of that trait. DISCUSSION: While influential in the field of biology and to some degree medicine, psychiatry has fallen short of adopting Tinbergen’s approach. This article aims at discussing why Tinbergen’s précis has lost nothing of its attractiveness to psychiatry as a medical discipline. Examples will be given for the analysis of emotions, attachment and psychotherapy. SUMMARY: Tinbergen has bequeathed to us a scientific framework that can greatly advance our understanding of psychiatric conditions and improve diagnosis and treatment of mental disorders, with similar potential for medicine in general.