I realize that a lot of people on Hacker News might consider this to be pseudoscience territory, but what about something like The Biology of Love by Arthur Janov?

http://www.amazon.com/Biology-Love-Arthur-Janov/dp/157392829...

His theory is that the primary cause of mental illness is intrauterine trauma, which negatively affects the structure of the emotional brain at a very crucial developmental stage. This trauma is undiagnosed and untreated in the newborn infant, and persists into adulthood, where it results in depression, addiction, panic attacks, etc.

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EDIT: asciilifeform, do you have some kind of axe to grind?

Anyways, here's a few links to scientific studies that support the relationship between intrauterine trauma and mental illness:

Relationship of maternal and perinatal conditions to eventual adolescent suicide

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/2857957

Obstetric care and proneness of offspring to suicide as adults: case-control study

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/9812930

Controversial, yes. Without any scientific support, no.