The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals usually been viewed in its relationship to Darwin's conception of "natural selection" as the central mechanism of evolutionary development, which he probably grasped some time around September 1838. These notes have a tentative and fragmented quality, especially in Darwin's descriptions of conversation with his father (a successful doctor with a special interest in psychiatric problems) about recurring patterns of behaviour in successive generations of his patients' families. Darwin was anxious about the materialistic drift in his thinking – and of the disrepute which this could attract in early Victorian England – at the time, he was mentally preparing for marriage
The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals initial correspondence with the psychiatrist James Crichton-Browne Darwin set aside his material concerning emotional expression in order to complete "The Descent of Man", which covered human ancestry and sexual selection. Darwin concluded work on "The Descent of Man" on 15 January 1871. Two days later, he started on "The Expression of the Emotions" and, on 22 August 1872, he finished work on the proofs. In this book, Darwin brings his evolutionary theory into close approximation with behavioural science, although many Darwin scholars have remarked on a kind of spectral Lamarckism haunting the text of the "Emotions". Universal Nature of Expression: