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.
As a society, we have a man problem. Males as a group under-perform females on many different measures starting early in life—for example, boys are four times more likely than girls to be expelled from preschool, are much more likely to be diagnosed with some form of attention deficit disorder, enter and graduate college at lower rates than their female peers, are more likely to perish from suicide and overdose, and are much more likely to commit homicides and violent acts. Then they die—on average 5 years earlier than the average female. And while a small percentage of men continue to be spectacularly successful in socioeconomic terms, as a group men seem adrift, confused, demoralized, and full of grievance.
Psychoanalysis as a profession has its own man problem and is not well-positioned to help understand and address the overall poor adaptation of males in our society. The fact that the majority of our practitioners are female and treat predominantly female patients can be a barrier to empathizing with the everyday lives of men in our society. Psychoanalysis' internecine battles and all or nothing thinking when it comes to matters of gender (e.g., essentialism vs. postmodern gender theory) make it more difficult for us to effectively address larger issues of male emotional dysfunction and social disaggregation.
In this fraught context, Michael Diamond's book Masculinity and Its Discontents: The Male Psyche and the Inherent Tensions of Maturing Manhood offers a unique and much-needed guide to understanding male psychology. Over more than 30 years, Diamond has built a body of work that is unparalleled for its sustained, careful, and thoughtful exploration of the male psyche. Masculinity and Its Discontents integrates his work on fatherhood, early and midlife male development, gender identity, and the elusiveness of masculinity, into a comprehensive framework for understanding the psychology of men. Diamond's book, sophisticated theoretically and well-grounded in his