The Book The Female Brain by Louann Brizendine - Essay Example

Introduction The book “The Female Brain”, written by Louann Brizendine, is an interesting book about why women behave the way they do and how the brain and hormones are responsible their behaviors. Louann Brizendine, the author of the book, is a neuropsychiatrist and has been a student of Yale school of medicine and Harvard medical school. The intention behind writing the book was to let the readers know that there is no such thing as unisex brain and, the behavior of women is different from men not because they are the inferior version of men but because their brain has a different structure and hormones than men’s brain. The author has described how the hormonal changes in different stages of woman’s life create different physical and behavioral changes in her and how these changes help her to cope with different roles that she plays at in her life. The book “The Female Brain” is a good book for understanding the difference in brain structure and hormones of women and men. However, the dramatic and the magazine like style of writing make the book lose the ‘depth’ of the subject matter. Hence, even though the book gives some meaningful and important facts about the female brain, the repetitive nature of the information makes the book lose its grip on the reader. After reading the whole book, the reader feels that the author had only few things to discuss about the female behavior and everything else was added just to increase the pages of the book. The Essence of the Book The essence of the book is the effort by the author to reveal that woman’s emotions, values, desires, decisions and the perception of reality are hugely influenced by the neurological effects caused by the hormones. The hormones that influence women’s brain and men’s brain are different and hence, their behavioral pattern, emotional pattern and thinking pattern are different. The author has discussed how the three major hormones of estrogen, dopamine and oxytocin influence woman’s mind and body to develop the ‘feminine’ qualities in her. The book reveals how estrogen is responsible for unique qualities like empathy and intuition in women. Women have a natural tendency to read emotions in body language, seek social interaction, trust others and remain loyal. According to the author, these qualities are unique to women because estrogen makes them seek social interaction and emotional bonding. The presence of the hormone oxytocin makes women trust others easily. Hormone dopamine is responsible for craving of sex and love in women. On the other hand, as the major hormone that influences men’s brain is testosterone, they lack all the qualities that are developed due to estrogen, oxytocin and dopamine. According to the author, the high influence of testosterone makes men crave adventure through aggression competition, games, sex, risk behavior etc. The whole book (The Female Brain) is based on the foundation of ‘how the influence of estrogen, oxytocin and dopamine in women’s brain make them develop the qualities of love, affection, intuition, emotional intelligence, trust and selflessness’. Hence, the book shows how women are unique from men and how their unique qualities help the society to grow and remain peaceful. Strength Of The Book The strength of the book is the women related topics that are covered by the author. There are many things that men do not understand about women. Things like going to bathroom with girlfriends, talking for a long time on phone, knowing intuitively if the partner is cheating, knowing when the baby is hungry etc., are unique to women. Men are incapable of gauging what other people want or are up to. The author has brilliantly explained what makes women so good at understanding what others need and reading people almost immediately. The author has elaborately discussed all those aspects of woman’s behavior which are considered as a ‘mystery’ by men. Men do not understand why women have a tendency to make a fuss over small things. They fail to understand that women have an intuitive ability to sense danger before it comes. Hence, if the husband is getting emotionally involved with his colleague, the wife tends to sense it in her guts and becomes disturbed. However, the husband misinterprets this behavior as sign of immaturity and insecurity. All such aspects of relationship between men and women are discussed in detail in the book. Moreover, the book has given scientific reason behind every behavioral aspect of woman’s nature. The author has also discussed the role of evolutionary biology in the development of feminine qualities of women. According to the author, human being’s ancestors have programmed the female genes to choose the fittest mate as they learnt that only the fittest of the beings survive. Hence, evolution has made women to look for a mate who is strong, stable and capable of taking care of the family. In short, women are genetically influenced while choosing a mate. Hence, they choose their mate according to his financial and social status and takes time to make a decision. Also, the unique quality of crying in women is a gift of genes. The author has described why it is 4 times easier for women to cry than men. According to the author, crying is a part of evolution. Women learnt that men cannot read facial expressions and emotions. They realized that men respond to women’s emotional appeals only when they see tears in their eyes. Hence, if women are to attract the attention of men, they have to cry. If they don’t cry then men don’t respond. In this way, evolutionary biology is a major reason behind the tendency of women to bring tears in eyes. The strength of the book lies in the discussion and revelation of unique aspects of women’s behavior and nature. Weakness of the Book The content of the book is shallow and is lengthened unnecessarily. In the book, the chapters ‘Love and Trust’ and ‘Sex: the brain below the belt’, are written too dramatically and in Hollywood style. While reading the chapters, one feels that the author is describing a Hollywood script or some love story. There was nothing new that the chapters had to offer. The chapter ‘Love and Trust’ is nothing but a description of ‘Darwin’s theory of survival of the fittest’ in Hollywood style. Also, the weakness of the book “The Female Brain” is the repetitive nature of the book. The incidents, the stories and the information in the book are repeated regularly. Many a times, the book becomes boring and the reader feels that the author had nothing more to say. By the end of the book, the reader feels that the only thing that the author has conveyed was that women’s brain is dominated by the hormones estrogen, oxytocin and dopamine and men’s brain is dominated by testosterone. Hence, man and women behave so differently. Moreover, the chapter on menopause reveals nothing new as the information given in this chapter has been repeatedly discussed in women’s magazines, television shows, medical journals etc. Hence, the lack of originality and strong content makes the book very weak. Conclusion The author Louann Brizendine has done a good job by writing a book “The Female Brain”, which focuses on the hormonal effects on the behavior of women. However, apart from knowing that it is estrogen, oxytocin and dopamine that endow women with her unique qualities, the reader gets nothing new from the book. Reference Brizendine, L. (2006). The Female Brain. New York, NY: Broadway Books. Read More