Did you know that when you experience pain that is persistent, the central nervous system–that is your brain and spinal cord–plays an important role in how you feel? According to the International Association for the Study of Pain, pain is ‘an unpleasant sensory and emotional experience’ in response to ‘actual or potential tissue damage.’ The...Continue reading
Male Attachment Disorder, Anger, and Relationship Stress: Helping Men and the Women Who Love Them
It’s said that we teach what we want to learn and I’ve been teaching and learning about men’s anger and how it impacts our relationships for many years now. 2018 marks 50 years that I’ve been in the business of helping men (My wife thinks I should say, 40 plus years, because 50 years might...Continue reading
14 Rules for Becoming Your Own Man: How to Be Wildly Successful At The Game of Life
Manhood today is maligned and misunderstood. Some believe maleness itself is inherently destructive and should be eliminated. In his book, The End of Manhood, John Stoltenberg says that the notion of manhood “is a sham, a trap, and those who would redeem it are kidding themselves, for manhood is a mask, incompatible with truly human selfhood.” Others...Continue reading
Boys Are in Trouble
The often-justifiable anger of women toward men has left boys in the lurch. In one of my earliest posts on Psychology Today, back in March 2010, I wrote of how stuck I felt being a liberal who cared about boys (and young men). While the data clearly showed that boys were struggling in school, and in other...Continue reading
Male Anger, Testosterone, and Depression: What Women and Men Need to Know Before It’s Too Late
Chronic and excessive anger causes the following problems: Increases a man’s risk for high blood pressure and heart-disease. Stresses relationships and causes women to withdraw. Is related to male-type depression. Creates separation between men, women, and children. Is linked to both high levels of testosterone and low levels. Is being played out on a national...Continue reading
The Gift of Maleness Part 5: The Third Chimpanzee and Male Suicide
The most tragic indictor of a world out of balance is the suicide rate in males. At every age, males take their own lives at rates much higher than females: Male 10 to 14-year-olds have suicide rates 1.8 times higher than females Male 15 to 19-year-olds have suicide rates 4.0 times higher than females. During...
Media Messages Affect Us
Dear Mr. Dad: I’m a new dad and have been reading to my baby. But I’ve started to notice that most of the parents in children’s books are moms. There are some books where dad is the main parent, but most of the time we’re not there at all. My wife says that the media...Continue reading
Abuse OF men BY women: It Happens, It Hurts, and It’s Time to Get Real About It
I’ve written a lot about male anger including two books, The Irritable Male Syndrome and Mr. Mean: Saving Your Relationship From the Irritable Male Syndrome and a recent article, “Are You Living With an Angry Man?” I recently received an email from Ann Silvers, author of Abuse OF Men BY Women: It Happens, it Hurts, and It’s Time to Get Real About...Continue reading
Tech for Toddlers
Dear Mr. Dad: I’m thinking of giving my 18-month-old my old iPad. She loves playing with it and I think she should have her own. My husband disagrees. What do you think? A: I’d hold off for a while. There’s a lot of information out there on technology’s effect on children, but very little on toddlers...Continue reading
Pain Below, What Every Man Should Know
You’ve probably experienced an ache or two at some point in your life. Toothache. Backache. Shoulder pain. Ankle sprain. Pain is part of the human predicament. Like pimples, aches and pains come and go. But what happens when suddenly something pops up down there?