The Male Brain: A Breakthrough Understanding of How Men and Boys Think
by Louann Brizendine, M.D.
Broadway, March 2010
Like The Female Brain, The Male Brain traces the organic development of the brain through the stages of life. I have been looking forward to reading this book for over a year now. Comparing the two books was most interesting, and now future readers can read them back to back.
The male cell has a Y chromosome and the female does not. Eight weeks after conception, the tiny male testicles begin to produce enough testosterone to fundamentally alter its structure.
The male brain is a lean mean problem-solving machine with two and a half times the brain space devoted to sexual drive. Sexual thoughts flicker all day and night making him always ready to seize sexual opportunity. Women don’t always realize that a penis has a mind of its own.
Especially parents of both sexes will benefit from reading The Boy Brain and The Teen Boy Brain sections. Boys’ moods and drives are explained clearly as they change biologically and with age. Mating and parenthood go way back in the evolution of the male brain development. The need to protect loves ones and to reproduce drive the male towards survival.
Now that I am getting old, I especially enjoyed the section on manhood and the description of the emotional lives of men.
I agree with the author: “. . . learning the male brain can help men and women feel more intimacy, compassion and appreciation for each other. Such understanding might be the most important factor in creating a genuine balance between the sexes.”
In 2008, I was reading The Female Brain and wrote about it here. Joe also has read The Male Brain and wrote about how it has affected his role as a parent. Check out Louann’s website here.
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