Health & Well-Being (5)
Saturday, 10 March 2012 19:03
Abused Men: The Hidden Side of Domestic Violence
Written by Phillip W. Cook
Published in
Health & Well-Being
Masculinity has a powerful effect on the health of men and boys. Indeed, many of the behaviors they use to "be men" actually increase their risk of disease, injury, and death. In this book, Dr. Will Courtenay, an internationally recognized expert on men's health, provides a foundation for understanding this troubling reality. With a comprehensive review of data and literature, he identifies specific gender differences in the health-related attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors of men and boys and the health consequences of these differences. He then describes the powerful social, environmental, institutional, and cultural influences that encourage their unhealthy behaviors and constrain their adoption of healthier ones. In the book's third section, he more closely examines the health needs of specific populations of men, such as ethnic-minority men, rural men, men in college, and men in prisons. Courtenay also provides four empirical studies conducted with multidisciplinary colleagues that examine the associations between masculinity and men and boys' health beliefs and practices. Finally, he provides specific strategies and an evidence-based practice guideline for working with men in a variety of settings, as well as a look to the future of men's health.
Published in
Health & Well-Being
Drawing on scientific research, as well as his own personal and clinical experience, award-winning research psychologist Michael E. Addis describes in this book an epidemic of personal, relational, and societal problems that are caused by the widespread invisibility of men's vulnerabilities. From increasing rates of suicide among men, to alcohol abuse, to violence and school shootings, his research reveals the continued cost of staying silent when emotional, physical, or spiritual pain enters men's lives.
Published in
Health & Well-Being
Saturday, 15 September 2012 15:02
Relationship Masquerades
Written by Richard Driscoll, Ph.D. and Nancy Ann Davis, Ph.D.
In earlier times, masquerades were sensual, festive gatherings in which participants wore masks and costumes to conceal their normal identities, and so freed themselves to be whoever they wished. We look here at something similar, in which egos, expectations, and nature herself combine to fashion myths and shared fantasies of who and what we are, which are at odds with our real selves. In "Relationship Masquerades," Driscoll teams with Nancy Ann Davis, PhD, who is also his wife, to clarify our stranger fictions. Some of the material is good natured fun, while some is extremely important to getting along together. The material speaks to both sides of relationships, although some sections will be especially important to men.Again and again, we find ourselves in a fantasyland, up against a vast sea of sympathy toward women and harsh criticism towards men which is way out of proportion to our true qualities. Why the bias? Where does it come from? And what are we to do about it?
Published in
Health & Well-Being
Monday, 26 November 2012 18:16
The Psychology of Freedom: The Frontier Romance
Written by Judith Kleinfeld
Many scholars focus on the institutions and legal systems important to freedom. The Frontier Romance explores a new dimension--- the psychology of freedom. American master narratives, such as the story of immigration and of going to the frontier create a psychology that valorizes such virtues as self-reliance, independence, and the courage to start over. The Frontier Romance explores the ways in which people who go to Alaska, which styles itself as “the last frontier,” use the frontier romance to create lives which signify freedom and opportunity. I describe people who chose “to go west young man and grow up with the country.” I describe people who go to the frontier to create unconventional lives-- “modern day mountain men,” “wilderness women,” and communal societies, a “city on a hill.” While Europeans imagined such Utopias, Americans created a wild profusion of such societies, typically on the frontier.
Published in
Health & Well-Being