Political Psychology Links, 12/20/2025

More evidence for a p-factor; Martin Gurri on rebellious Zoomers; Michael Cuenco on same; Rachel Lu on Volkish proto-Nazis

Abdel Abdellaoui and many co-authors write,

Psychiatric disorders display high levels of comorbidity and genetic overlap^1,2, challenging current diagnostic boundaries. For disorders for which diagnostic separation has been most debated, such as schizophrenia and bipolar disorder³, genomic methods have revealed that the majority of genetic signal is shared…The two factors defined by (1) Schizophrenia and bipolar disorders (SB factor); and (2) major depression, PTSD and anxiety (Internalizing factor) showed high levels of polygenic overlap⁶ and local genetic correlation and very few disorder-specific loci.

Pointer from Tyler Cowen. The correlation among many measures of intelligence leads psychometricians to posit a g-factor, for general intelligence. More recently, there is the idea of a p-factor, for general susceptibility to psychiatric disorders. I read this abstract as indicating further support for the idea of a p-factor.

Michael Magoon asked ChatGPT to explain the study to a layman.

This huge genetics study shows that most psychiatric disorders are not genetically separate diseases. Instead, they share a large amount of the same genetic risk, which clusters into a small number of underlying genetic “families.” What makes disorders look different is mostly a smaller set of genes layered on top of this shared foundation. This helps explain why people so often have multiple diagnoses and suggests psychiatry’s current categories don’t line up well with brain biology.

…the data naturally grouped into five major genetic factors:

1. Schizophrenia–Bipolar factor

   • Schizophrenia and bipolar disorder are genetically very similar.

   • There are very few genes that clearly separate them.

2. Internalizing factor

   • Major depression, anxiety disorders, and PTSD.

   • These share extensive genetic overlap and differ very little at the genetic level.

3. Neurodevelopmental factor

   • Autism, ADHD, and (to a degree) Tourette’s.

   • Strongly tied to early brain development.

4. Compulsive disorders factor

   • Anorexia and OCD (with some overlap from Tourette’s and anxiety).

5. Substance-use factor

   • Alcohol, opioid, cannabis, and nicotine dependence.

   • ADHD partially overlaps here.

…Above those five groups, the researchers found a general genetic vulnerability to mental illness overall—sometimes called a “p-factor.”

Martin Gurri writes,

the young insurgents plainly had access to electricity, laptops, and smartphones and shared a considerable degree of education. They fought for the poor but were the offspring of restless elites. That observation can be extended to Gen Z movements everywhere from Madagascar to Manhattan, courtesy of Zohran Mamdani…

A different generation, with a strange origin story, now occupies center stage. They are the One Piece pirates, sickened by reality, reluctant to grow up. Their alienation, which appears so theatrical, is totally real. They have been lost in cyberspace their whole lives, and they must now grapple with the misery and the madness of inhabiting actual history. Despite their best efforts, they can’t be children forever.

Michael Cuenco writes,

The Zoomer mind may believe it’s engaged in political acts; it may even precipitate big in-person rallies, the overthrow of a leader, or the radicalization of a party. But so long as politics is accessed primarily through screens, much like the Millennials, the new generation will find that their “movements” have about as much longevity and impact as a trend on X or TikTok.

Cuenco would have the Zoomers get their political act together. I’m not sure I want to see that.

Rachel Lu writes,

The word “Volk,” originally infused with heroic resonance during the Napoleonic wars, could be loosely translated as “people” or “nation,” but it had much stronger and richer emotional valences in the nineteenth century. It linked features of German landscapes and cultural life with something transcendent and mystical, a mysteriously vibrant life-force. Volkish thought moved continually in parallels, contrasting ostensibly authentic and vibrant things with the cold, rootless, rationalistic, and lifeless fruits of industrialized modernity. Rural hamlets were authentic, but cities (the natural domain of homo economicus) were not. Music and art were the height of authenticity and beauty, but the sciences were dehumanizing and soulless. Farmers and artisans were doing good and life-affirming work, but capitalists were agents of alienation, de facto enslaving their hapless worker-captives.

…Volkish thought naturally sought an object or totem that could embody the antithesis of the desired thing. Several candidates suggested themselves, but the Jews were from the beginning the primary target, cast as the definitive “anti-type,” a kind of photographic negative of everything the Volk was meant to represent. Jews were presented as city-dwelling “rootless cosmopolitans,” driven by “the Jewish science” (economics), restless, dangerously entrepreneurial, and bent on quenching the vital spirit of the Volk. Volkish thought naturally sought an object or totem that could embody the antithesis of the desired thing. Several candidates suggested themselves, but the Jews were from the beginning the primary target, cast as the definitive “anti-type,” a kind of photographic negative of everything the Volk was meant to represent. Jews were presented as city-dwelling “rootless cosmopolitans,” driven by “the Jewish science” (economics), restless, dangerously entrepreneurial, and bent on quenching the vital spirit of the Volk.

This was the movement that preceded the Nazis.

substacks referenced above: @

Do Genes Cause Mental Disorders?