New Psychotherapy for Men

"From childhood onward, men appear to be at risk. Infant males aremore likely to undergo complications during labor and delivery andto have more birth defects. Boys often manifest behavioraldifficulties and learning disabilities in elementary school. Byeighth grade, boys are only half as likely as girls to aspire to bea professional or career person; boys are nine times more likely tosuffer from hyperactivity and more than twice as likely to besuspended from school. Men are less likely to attend college and/orgraduate school than women. Compared to young women, young men arefour times more likely to be victims of homicide and five timesmore likely to kill themselves.

"Men suffer under a code of masculinity that requires them to be:aggressive, dominant, achievement oriented, competitive, rigidlyself-sufficient, adventure seeking, willing to take risks,emotionally restricted, and constituted to avoid all thingsperceived as 'feminine.' Such a code is bound to take a toll onmen's longevity. The average life expectancy for males in theUnited States is seven years shorter than that for women.Traditional male role traits inhibit men from seeking medical helpin the early stages of disease and from being sufficiently attunedto their own internal processes to detect early warnings ofillness." --from the Introduction.

Slowly, the truth emerges. In a society in which men are expectedto be strong, independent, aggressive, and impervious to emotionalstress, boys are nine times more likely than girls to suffer fromhyperactivity, young men are five times more likely to commitsuicide than young women, and men have far higher rates ofsubstance abuse and antisocial personality disorder than women.Clearly, many men are in need of psychological treatment andpsychotherapy. Ironically, however, the very qualities that areresponsible for many of their emotional and behavioral difficultiesmake it much more difficult for men to admit they have problems,seek professional help, or have faith in the efficacy oftreatment.

In New Psychotherapy for Men, leading figures in the field of men'spsychology explore the psychological sources of men's emotionaldifficulties and offer specific techniques to help therapistsovercome men's resistance to therapy. With the help of full-lengthcase studies, they trace the sources of emotional and psychologicaldisturbances in men and present new models for assessing andtreating men's unique emotional difficulties. This book illuminatesthe unhealthy aspects of masculinity through the lens of genderrole strain, creating state-of-the-art, gender-specific treatmentsfor men.

Major issues addressed in New Psychotherapy for Men include:
* Reluctant men in couples therapy
* Group therapy for traditional men
* Gender role strain in the family system
* Recognizing and treating depression in men
* Men's shame and trauma in therapy
* Gender role strain as a factor in male impotence
* Treating male violence
* Helping men find a voice for their feelings
* Adapting psychodynamic therapy for men.

This book also takes a multicultural perspective, discussing thespecial problems of anger and stress experienced by AfricanAmerican men, psychotherapy for gay men, and the difficulties thatcan arise when a female therapist treats a male patient.

Groundbreaking, broad in scope, and infused with countlesspractical suggestions, New Psychotherapy for Men is anextraordinarily helpful guide for all mental health professionalswho deal with men. It is also an excellent graduate-level text,offering today's students a rich, fully developed body of newknowledge with which to begin their careers.

WILLIAM S. POLLACK, PhD, is the Codirector of the Center for Menand the Director of Continuing Education (Psychology) at McLeanHospital, and is Assistant Clinical Professor of Psychology in theDepartment of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School. He is the PastPresident of the Massachusetts Psychological Association, acandidate at the Boston Psychoanalytic Institute, a diplomate inclinical psychology (ABPP, Board Certified), and a founding memberand Fellow of the Society for the Psychological Study of Men andMasculinity, a division of the American Psychological Association.Dr. Pollack is coauthor (with Dr. Bill Betcher) of In a Time ofFallen Heroes: The Re-creation of Masculinity and coeditor (withDr. Levant) of A New Psychology of Men. His articles have appearedin the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, USA Today, and numerousother national and international publications.

RONALD F. LEVANT, EdD, is Dean and Professor of Psychology, NovaSoutheastern University, Ft. Lauderdale, Florida. The founder andformer director of the Boston University Fatherhood Project, Dr.Levant has played a major role in the American PsychologicalAssociation in setting up organizational structures on thereexamination of masculinity: He is founder and Chair of the APADivision of Psychotherapy's Task Force on Men's Roles andPsychotherapy and cofounder and first president of the Society forthe Psychological Study of Men and Masculinity (SPSMM). Dr. Levanthas published sixty refereed articles and book chapters and tenbooks, including Men and Sex (edited with Gary R. Brooks, and alsofrom Wiley), Between Father and Child (with John Kelly),Masculinity Reconstructed (with Gini Kopecky), and A New Psychologyof Men (edited with Dr. Pollack).