You do not currently have permission to view the full text for this document. Please sign in to an account with an active subscription or contact support.
Much has been written about women in recent years, however, there has not been a comprehensive and solid text on the psychology of men until now. After reading much of the literature on male gender issues and having myself published a book on therapy with men, I can recommend this book as the definitive work on the subject.
The book contains an outstanding group of contributors who have made significant contributions to theory, research, and applications of masculinity. The editors are both clinical psychologists on the faculty of Harvard Medical School. Dr. Levant is on the faculty of Cambridge Hospital and the cofounder and cochair of the Society for the Psychological Study of Men and Masculinity. Dr. Pollack is codirector of the Center for Men at McLean Hospital. He is also a candidate at the Boston Psychoanalytic Institute, and has presented at the American Academy of Psychoanalysis. Dr. Pollack previously published with Dr. William Betcher, who is both a psychologist and a psychiatrist also at Harvard Medical School, the excellent book, In a Time of Fallen Heroes: The Re-Creation of Masculinity.
The book is divided into four parts, which include current chapters on theory, research, applications, and varieties of masculinity. The first part, on theory, contains chapters on an update of gender-role strain, a psychoanalytic psychology of men, a relational perspective of male development, and the importance of shame. Each chapter contains important insights, much as the need for boys to give up the early maternal holding environment, which creates adult problems in intimacy and commitment. Also the difficulty in integrating shame may contribute to social withdrawal or violence.