Like millions of others in the U.S. and throughout the world, I’ve been depressed a lot in my life and I’ve taken medications to help relieve the hopelessness, irritability, and lack of energy that plagued me. In 2004, I wrote a book, The Irritable Male Syndrome: Understanding the 4 Key Causes of Depression and Aggression that gathered...Continue reading
Last week we talked about five things women can do to get their partners to take on more responsibility in the home, and, in particular, with the children. Here are three more. If you have any suggestions to add to the list, please drop us an email. No gatekeeping. Many women take charge of the household...Continue reading
I take care of men for a living and easily the most common question I’m asked is this: “While you’re down there Doc, can you tell me if I’m…you know…normal?” From a hot potato standpoint, I Iiken this question to when my wife asks me how she looks in a dress. Penile Mythology The popular culture...Continue reading
I’m an angry male. O.K., I’ve said it. There is a lot to be angry about. Gun violence continues. Too many of our children live in poverty. Our environment is deteriorating. We are heating the planet beyond its capacity to support human life. Our country is divided. The political system is broken. Families are falling...Continue reading
I’m a therapist specializing in helping men and the families who love them. I’ve been seeing people for more than 40 years, but it has only been in recent years that I’ve come to recognize the importance of the absent father wound on the lives of men and women. When I was five years old, my mid-life...Continue reading
There is a saying that we teach what we want to learn. I suspect it may be equally true that we write about issues most important in our lives. I grew up as an only child in a single parent-family. My father was gone by the time I was five years old. My mother had...Continue reading
I was five years old when my uncle drove me to the mental hospital. He was taking me to see my father who had suffered “a nervous breakdown.” Later I learned that he had become increasingly depressed because he couldn’t make a living supporting his family. Like me, he was a writer, and found it...Continue reading
Dear Mr. Dad: With all the talk about #MeToo these days, I want to teach my children about the importance of standing up for themselves and what they believe in. When do you think is the right time to start, and how should I do it? A: Teaching children to stand up for themselves and what...Continue reading
Is anything good in excess? Most of us can make the argument that excess has its place in life: pets, shoes, cars, art, love. Others, like Mahatma Ghandi, prefer the ascetic existence in which material things are roundly denounced. Throughout history even the greats can’t agree about excess: Hippocrates espoused that “everything in excess is...Continue reading
Dear Mr. Dad: My wife and I have always had a loud relationship. There’s never any physical violence, but we do tend to argue a lot. One recent source of disagreements is whether it’s okay to argue in front of our kids, who are 5 and 8. What’s your take? A: Conventional wisdom says that you...Continue reading