READ THIS: THE FEMALE BRAIN By Louann Brizendine, M.D.
Previously, we highly recommended The Male Brain:
http://www.whomyouknow.com/2010/07/read-this-male-brain-breakthrough.html
Admittedly, The Female Brain is much more complicated, but it also makes a lot more sense! Brizendine tells us that 99% of male and female genetic coding is the same, but we see a world of difference in that 1%! Although men may have bigger brains, women have brains that are more dense. They both have the same number of brain cells...and female brains mature two to three years more quickly than male brains. But we KNEW that, right?
What don't we know?
We didn't know most of what was contained in this book, and we found it all enlightening. We can't reiterate the whole book, and besides, this column exists because we want YOU to go read what we just read (we do read other books that we would not recommend...so you can imagine the total book tally). Did you know when you're in love your brain activity mimics that of a drug addict? Did you know there are only two times when men register emotions at the same level as women (anger, aggression.) All kinds of communication can be improved through the conclusions and understandings you will reach through this book. Men and women are not the same, and anyone that thinks so is doing a disservice to both. What are you wired for? What is the opposite sext wired for? This book will provoke just as many questions as it will provide answers! Read it with a book group with a nice bottle of wine. Whom You Know Highly Recommends The Female Brain! All men and women should read this to promote better understanding and peace in the world!
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While doing research as a medical student at Yale and then as a resident at Harvard, Dr. Louann Brizendine discovered that almost all the clinical data in existence on neurology, psychology, and neurobiology focused exclusively on male patients and male test subjects. Consequently, all of modern medicine's information on the human mind completely discounted the differences between female and male biology and psychology. In response to an overwhelming need for information on the female mind, Brizendine established the first clinic in the country to study women's brain structure, function, and mood. At the same time – for the first time – the National Institute of Health began including female subjects in almost all its studies. The result has been an explosion of new data on the female brain in recent years and Brizendine's clinic was one of the very first to put all these findings into practice, creating a major shift in the way doctors view female patients and their symptoms.
Now, THE FEMALE BRAIN (Broadway Books; August 7, 2007; Trade Paperback Reprint; $14.95), combines two decades of Brizendine's own neurobiological research, real-life stories from her clinical practice, and the all the latest information from the scientific community at large to provide a truly comprehensive look at the unique mechanics of the female brain. Brizendine uses this new research to educate women about their unique brain-body behavior.
Brizendine reveals the neurological explanations behind why:
- Women remember fights that a man insists never happened
- Teen Girls are so obsessed with looks and why they won’t get off the phone
- Thoughts about sex enter a woman’s brain much less often than they enter a man’s
- Women know what people are feeling, while men can’t spot an emotion unless somebody cries or threatens bodily harm
- Women over fifty are more likely to initiate divorce than men
Above all, female brains have a unique plasticity and flexibility; their constant, dynamic state of change is the key difference that separates them from the male brain. THE FEMALE BRAIN is a moving and accessible read with a hard science backbone, a tool for helping women understand themselves, and a guide for the men around them.
About the Author:
LOUANN BRIZENDINE, M.D., a neuropsychiatrist at the University of California, San Francisco, is the founder of the Women’s and Teen Girls’ Mood and Hormone Clinic. She was previously on faculty at the Harvard Medical School and is a graduate of the Yale University School of Medicine and the University of California, Berkeley, in neurobiology. She has appeared on ABC’s “Good Morning America,” ABC’s “20/20,” NBC’s “Today Show,” CNN’s “American Morning,” National Public Radio’s “Weekend All Things Considered” and has been featured in Newsweek, O Magazine, The San Francisco Chronicle, The New York Times Magazine, and the Los Angeles Times to name a few. She lives in the San Francisco Bay area with her husband and son.
