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Our brain is essentially a computer, and the mind is the program that the brain runs. Our brain evolved, much like our bodies have, to handle problems that our hunter gatherer ancestors encountered. Pinker outlines a "modularity of mind", the notion that a mind may, at least in part, be composed of innate neural structures or modules which have distinct established evolutionarily developed functions. Pinker also identifies some human psychological traits that are evolved adaptations – that is, the functional products of natural selection. I've been told that there better books, and it seems theadvancedapes lists a few. Maybe start there, I never finished HTMW, I sort of got the point after a few chapters, if that makes any sense.