DNA is often seen as something hard and fixed, like a lever you can’t control. What if you find out that you share the same DNA as a famous serial killer or sociopath? What if you find out that your aggression is in your genes? What if you are just doomed to be sad for the rest of your life, all because of the structure of your DNA?
To many, studying DNA brings a deterministic view on life, reducing your free will. There is a warranted fear that politicians might bring back eugenics and start breeding forward the right kind of genes, while discarding other genes, like genes associated with critical thinking. But DNA is not a prison. It can actually give you more freedom in areas where you used to be ignorant.
The fear of studying DNA is rooted in a common misconception about how DNA works. DNA is not a black-and-white study. It can be incredibly complex and multifaceted. Your DNA doesn’t dictate or control your behavior. DNA is activated or deactivated based on environmental stimulation. It follows a general logical chain: if this, then that.
How understanding your DNA can give you more freedom
Understanding your DNA can give insight into your responses or why you might feel or react a certain way to a certain kind of situation. A DNA associated with an increased likelihood of addiction might be channeled towards drug abuse or healthy gym habits. That’s where your choice comes in. You can’t help how you feel or react to something, what your triggers are, or how excitable you are. You can’t control how you feel. Nor should you. Your feelings are a language and how your body communicates with you. You choose how you respond. Over the course of your life, you will go from an easily dysregulated baby, that can overreact to the slightest environmental variations, to a high-functioning adult. Over the course of your life, you are building up systems, mental scripts, and cognitive abilities that help you skillfully navigate any situation. You’ve got the reptile brain and your DNA, your DNA being essentially the base code or instructions your body use when generating new cells, or regulating dopamine or serotonin levels in your brain. Your reptile brain being the primitive, animalistic side of you, most associated with your spine or nervous system, and basic animal scripts, like hunger, fatigue, anger. It also contains scripts like play, fight, flight, freeze, and fawn.
Your neocortex has evolved on top of this as a brain 2.0 which helps manage and support the reptile brain in achieving it’s basic goals. A well-developed person knows how to work with their reptile brain and within their basic genetic code to make smart choices about their environment, lifestyle, and working environment. A poorly developed person has built a work life and relationships that feed addiction, stress, and chronic fatigue or anxiety. Understanding your genetic code can help you figure out your map and help orient yourself. You can use this awareness to make strategic decisions about how you want to channel your base genetics and instincts towards more healthy pursuits. The very same DNA that might make you a potential serial killer can be harnessed to make you a good surgeon, saving lives, and adding to a better world. Perhaps that’s an unnecessarily bloody example. The point is, you’re not a slave to your DNA. But if you felt like you were a slave before you started studying DNA, you might use DNA to rationalize why you had no control in the first place. The desire to feel like you don’t have control over your decisions is usually connected to the feelings of shame we might otherwise hold over our choices. When a person struggles with big feelings of shame or guilt, determinism becomes a popular distraction. You might now tell me that determinism is a rational conclusion and that free will is a naive fantasy. On that, the jury is still out, and we have evidence to support both sides of the argument. It’s easy to choose the black and white side and to say either we have a full and extreme version of free will, or we have nothing at all.
On to a more nuanced philosophical view: We probably have a limited free will that is regulated or directed by our environmental circumstances. Environmental constraints, like our DNA, exist, and so, we are not balls of clay that can be shaped to exactly anything, but we have a degree of conscious control. So we can probably rightfully blame ourselves for certain choices, while we can understand others as unavoidable consequences of our past experiences and genetics. You have some things to feel ashamed about, some things to love about yourself, and some things you just need to accept and let go of control over. That’s the kind of freedom I think you can allow yourself. Freedom to understand what is in your control, and what is not. Freedom to make the kind of choices you have control over, and freedom from worrying about what you can’t control.
