A journal entry sharing an excerpt from Peter Wessel Zapffe's philosophical essay "The Last Messiah," which explores the idea that species can become unfit for survival by overevolving a single ability, using deer with overgrown horns as an example and comparing depressive mental states to this evol
By Peter Wessel Zapffe.
The tragedy of a species becoming unfit for life by overevolving one ability is not confined to humankind. Thus it is thought, for instance, that certain deer in paleontological times succumbed as they acquired overly-heavy horns. The mutations must be considered blind, they work, are thrown forth, without any contact of interest with their environment. In depressive states, the mind may be seen in the image of such an antler, in all its fantastic splendour pinning its bearer to the ground.
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