Human survival and the self-destruction paradox: An integrated theoreticalmodel

Borrowing from evolutionary biology, existentialism, developmental psycholo gy, and social learning theory, an integrated model of human behavior is ap plied to several forms of self-destructive behavior, to include anorexia ne rvosa, suicide, substance abuse, and pathological gambling. It is argued th at self-destructive behavior is a function of how the individual psychologi cally construes survival and copes with perceptions of isolation and separa tion from the environment. The paradox of self destructive behavior in orga nisms motivated by self-preservation is resolved by caking note of the fact that self-destruction seems from people's efforts to survive psychological ly and resolve the subject-object duality, even when this places their phys ical well-being in jeopardy.