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Kallman again emphasizes the fact, which is often overlooked, that heredity exists in man as well as in other animals. Psychologists and psychiatrists overly occupied with cultural and environmental influences are apt to underestimate its importance. He points out that in mental disorders, similar results are produced by similar environmental circumstances in only a small fraction of the people exposed to them. He discusses the psychological and cultural influences which lead to the ignoring and minimizing of the hereditary factors, e.g., the desire to emphasize psychological and cultural influences for purposes of therapy, prevention and education; to minimize a fatalistic prognostic outlook; and to reduce the guilt and loss of self-esteem of relatives.
Abnormal life histories are the outcome of intricate interactions between different combinations of environmental circumstances and varying innate deficiencies in the capacity for mental adjustment and biological adaptation. Predispositions (potential responses to the environment) are inherited. These are developed or minimized by environmental stresses. He discusses the rôle of single and multiple hereditary factors in the causation of various mental and nervous disorders with emphasis on the genetic theory of schizophrenia to which he has contributed many important papers.