“Did you know that every brain begins as a female brain and that only becomes male eight weeks after conception? This is when excess testosterone shrinks the communication centre, reduces the hearing cortex and makes the part of the brain that processes sex twice as large.”
When I picked up The Female Brain by Louann Brizendine and flipped to the back cover to read the blurb those lines immediately caught my attention and I bought the book without reading any further or even flipping through the pages to read a paragraph or two as I usually do while making a book selection. [break]
I have to admit that initially the author came across as fairly sexist but as I read on her wit and the ease with which she explains the complexities of the human mind grew on me. Again I have to admit that it wasn’t enough to make me fall in love with the book as I had hoped to while returning home from the bookstore.
Brizendine follows the development of women’s brains from birth through the teen years, to courting, pregnancy, childbirth and childrearing, and to menopause and beyond.
Brizendine claims to have written this book to explain why a women’s brain has an impact on what she values and thinks about, how she will communicate and whom she decides to fall in love with but the book fails to impress as the author seems to be confused and at times her “research” sounds less like scientific facts and more like life and relationship advice.
The author uses personal stories from her patients, her friends and her own life to anchor the discussion of sex differences in behavior, hormones and the brain. The stories are the best part of the book. Readers will be able to connect to certain stories depending on which phase of life they are currently going through.
However, the writer makes a lot of claims that seem to have no proper validation. The text is rife with ‘facts’ that do not exist in the supporting references causing the reader to question her credibility. Instead of basing her conclusions on scientific studies of gender differences, she observes friends and clinical cases and uses these isolated cases to assume their behavior as motivated by biology.
Both her logic and evidence are weak. Most of the research she mentions has been carried out on mice or rats and more often than not her citations don’t support her claims but rather contradict them. The book is neither new nor accurate and definitely not serious science. But the writer makes some very good points – in spurts – which are but few and far between.
Brizendine explains that women have brain circuits wired for decoding the smallest detail in nonverbal communication. They are also expert at determining emotional nuances. Men, on the other hand, don’t understand hints. It is bits like these – and there are many – that make you compare the book with other self-help books like “Men are from Mars and Women are from Venus” by John Gray and “Why men lie and Women cry” by Barbara and Alan Pease. And you would be better off reading either one of those if self-help is what you are after.
“Female brain is so deeply affected by hormones that their influence can be said to create a woman’s reality. They can shape a woman’s values and desires and tell her, day to day, what’s important.” By saying that, she goes on to add that women’s neurological reality is like the weather – constantly changing and hard to predict.
Though anyone who has ever had to bear with a woman’s moods can relate to it, those are yet again just observations and aren’t supported by scientific research. By reiterating over and over again that a woman’s brain is “marinated” in hormones, she makes women sound like lunatics with no control over their emotions.
Though we would all agree on the fact that brain chemistry is extremely important in determining our moods and behavior, holding hormones largely responsible for all kinds of behavior is perhaps stretching it a bit too far.
Much of the book revolves around already heard and debated topics and offers nothing new save some bits that will get you thinking. Readers will be fascinated as well as angered, convinced and skeptical, depending on what they agree or disagree with.
I really don’t know what Daniel Goleman was thinking when he said “Louann Brizendine has done a great favor for every man who wants to understand the puzzling women in his life. A breezy and enlightening guide to women and a must-read for men.” when all she has done is produce a largely unreliable work on a topic that is overdone and clichéd.
cillakhatry@gmail.com
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