The Female Brain
by Louann Brizendine M.D.
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Book Reviews of The Female Brain
Book Review: The Unique Female Brain
Summary: 4 Stars
Dr. Brizendine is a neuropsychiatrist and as such is very attuned to the chemical processes that drive different changes and effects within the brain. In this book, she cogently lays out the hormonal processes that affect the brain all through a woman's life. In her first 100 pages, she explains what most psychiatrists and biologists have known for 40 years or so about the basic neurotransmitters and hormones that drive certain behaviors. Using this as a basis for the rest of her book, she then goes into startling and revealing new research that indicates very interesting and virtually revolutionary thinking about the brain.
Evolutionary arguments about the development of certain genetic functionalities are really hard to justify over the age of about 45 (until very recently, average terminal age was about 42 years old). The research that Dr. Brizendine does is based on competent and reliable PET and MRI scans of the brain in action. The assumptions and clinical results that Doctors had assumed to be true about hormones and neurotransmitters such as serotonin, oxytocin, dopamine, norepinephrine, testosterone, progesterone and estrogen are verified by the technology.
The truly unique and extrapolative portions of Dr. B's book are contained in the second half of the text, where she explains how hormones and especially estrogen, actually do have serious and significant effects on the female brain. The most significant of these is that during about a 6 (six) year window post menopause, HT (Hormone Replacement Therapy) of estrogen appears in most cases to retard the deterioration of cellular material in the cerebral cortex. This revolutionary concept; along with similar and interesting results of testosterone treatment of post-menopausal women are wonderfully useful. Dr. B. has the unique combination of neurology and psychiatry along with years and years of clinical practice to be able to put all this data together in a cohesive theory that may just be the beginning of a revolutionary treatment regimen for women over 40. The book is highly recommended to all women and most men, as it describes behavior patterns that are associated with hormonal flux and helps both men and women deal with the difficulties that sometimes arise as a result of these huge chemical changes within the female body.
Book Review: Not the way we might like it to be but the way it is
Summary: 5 Stars
I have the sense that Louann Brizendine would perhaps like to have discovered a somewhat different picture of the 'female brain' than the one she reveals in this book. A strong feminist her researches, and above all the cumulative scientific evidence she brings here point to strong differences between the 'female' and the 'male ' brain.
The first is, that the female brain is an 'eight- lane superhighway' when it comes to the emotional life, while the 'male brain'is a narrow path in the forest. Women are a lot better at empathizing and understanding others than men are. Men on the other hand are more preoccupied with specific, external tasks. Women care about intimacy.Women think about sex every couple of days or so, and men every hour of the day. Women talk a lot more than men, and receive a great 'high' in doing so.
In one of the interviews for the book she explains the basic Learning differences between the sexes.
"Girls, develop language skills earlier than boys do; boys develop visual and spatial skills earlier than girls. By 2 1/2, many girls are actively choosing not to play with boys, not for any cultural or sociological reason but because boys have not yet grasped the concept of verbal give-and-take. Boys, with their faster-developing spatial skills, are more likely to gravitate to building blocks and train sets and physical activities that require minimal verbal interaction. "
She says that the skills tend to level out in high- school age and strongly recommmends that girls be given at this age intensive scientific training as a way of catching up with what boys have been accumulating previously.
Perhaps however the most important aspect of the book relates to Brizendine's work as psychiatrist. Her understanding of the hormonal and physiological forces at play in various stages of the woman's life enable her to find answers in specfic cases which have in the past been overlooked.
It is this therapeutic rather than polemical approach to the female brain, and its special qualities which makes this such a highly recommended work.
Book Review: Excellent Step Towards Correcting Political Correctness!
Summary: 5 Stars
Many years ago I read a book focusing on the complexity of the human brain - all the chemicals and enzymes involved, and the impact of various shortages or overages. That book convinced me that there are scientific bases for claims that various groups are different; unfortunately, the PC police then took over. "The Female Brain" moves us back towards science-based fact-finding.
Brizendine begins by pointing out that while male brains are about 9% larger (even after correcting for body size), they have the same number of cells as female brains. Thus, size is not a meaningful difference between the sexes. However, she also tells us that there is a 2:1 ratio of depression in women vs. men, and that this differential doesn't appear until puberty - thus, chemistry does seem to be an important distinguishing factor. Further, new tools such as PET and fMRI have since documented an astonishing array of differences between men and women. Examples include different brain sensitivities to stress and conflict, use of different brain areas to solve problems and process language, etc. Women have 400% more neurons then men in the brain centers for language and hearing; men have 2.5X brain space devoted to sex, as well as larger centers for action and aggression.
As for the claim that women do less well than men in science and men (eg. Larry Summers, at Harvard), Brizendine asserts that the abilities are the same, but that estrogen causes girls to lose interest in pursuits that require more solitary work. Because of their larger communication centers, girls grow up to be more talkative - using an average 20,000 words/day, vs. 7,000 for men.
"The Female Brain" examines male-female differences over a human's life-cycle. Menopause brings other changes - less interest in sex, and greater anger (65% of divorces over age 50 are initiated by women).
Bottom Line: "The Female Brain" is a great step forward. It is an easy read, with plenty of objective documentation in its end-notes.
Book Review: A NO-BRAINER
Summary: 1 Stars
I find this book very unflattering to women, mildly informative and beleaguered with sweeping generalizations.
What do we know? Yes women are moody - emotional roller coasters - wired to blow their fuse at the drop of a misperception or doubt and can be emotionally out of control. Now women, who for centuries have been accused of having no accountability and sense of reason, are being told by this researcher that all they need to do is to pop a pill or undergo strict behavioral modification and they will be contented and complacent -- we will all be able have acceptable female friends, female partners, wives, waitresses and window washers, albeit stoned Stepford Wives. The tears will be replaced with calm and cool, and we will be capable of getting on to the next level of business without the fearsome Carries and Camilles.
With regard to women's intuition and keen sense of perception, clearly the author leaves out the proposition, that woman by nature (as she herself supposes) are nurturing, and needing of approval and acceptance, and are looking harder and longer for anything that would smack of approval or disapproval, and in vigorously doing so are going to find a flaw or inconsistency. Let's not confuse trouble making with table tapping.
I think this book does an injustice to the centuries of social pressure and brainwashing put upon women who have become convinced that without drugs or intense behavioral modification they have no control over their emotions. It underplays the role of drugless self-analysis and confidence building.
On the subject of the male brain, she suggests that that is "another book". Okay somebody, get with it and let's even the playing field. Perhaps a more balanced comparative study would make for better sense of this issue.
Book Review: Pretty Good
Summary: 4 Stars
This is a book that I would highly recommend to any woman going through big changes in her life, be it pregnancy, menopause, or what have you. It would also be useful for men (such as myself) who find themselves downright puzzled by what can often seem like the completely random, unpredictable behavior of the women in their lives.
The book as a whole is chock full of interesting information about how exactly the female brain works. To my objective, logical male brain, Dr. Brizendine is at her best when she's discussing science and experimental evidence. Unfortunately, she often lapses into anecdotes that seem to try their hardest to portray men in a rather poor light, particularly in the opening chapters of the book. She usually brings us back to reality by citing empirical evidence that backs up her antidotes, but for the first few chapters of the book Dr. Brizendine reminded me of the little league umpire who calls a fair game, but openly roots for his kid's team and occasionally boos the other team. I almost put the book down after reading Dr. Brizendine's admission that she was disappointed in her infant son's inability to respond to facial expressions the way a friend's infant daughter could. (I hope Dr. Brizendine was watching her now-teenaged son's expression when he read that particular passage.)
Luckily, Dr. Brizendine soon abandons the "women good, men bad" undertones of the first few chapters. So fellas, grit your teeth and soldier through the first few chapters - the rhetoric eventually dies down, and some good, fascinating information takes its place.