The Female Brain (book)
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The Female Brain is a book written by the American neuropsychiatrist Louann Brizendine in 2006. The main thesis of the book is that women's behavior is different from that of men due, in large measure, to hormonal differences. Brizendine says that the human female brain is affected by the following hormones: estrogen, progesterone, testosterone, (oxytocin), neurotransmitters (dopamine, serotonin), and that there are differences in the architecture of the brain (prefrontal cortex, hypothalamus, amygdala) that regulates such hormones and neurotransmitters.
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Structure
The Female Brain has seven chapters, each one of which is dedicated to a specific part of a woman's life such as puberty, motherhood, and menopause, or a specific dimension of a women's emotional life such as feelings, love and trust, and sex. The book also includes three appendices on hormone therapy, postpartum depression, and sexual orientation.
Reception
The book sold well but received mixed reviews, because a number of journalists, popular science writers, and scientists questioned the validity of some of the content.
Some of the authors that supported the content of the book include:
- Deborah Tannen, of The Washington Post Tannen writes, "Throughout the book, I recognized biological accounts for social behaviors I had observed and written about." In a similar vein, she adds, "Anthropologists and linguists who have studied children at play have noted that girls form bonds by telling secrets. Here, too, Brizendine finds 'a biological reason.'" Her ultimate position is one of cautionary endorsement: "Ideally, readers will sift through the case studies, research findings and scientific conjectures gathered in this non-technical book and be intrigued by some while questioning others, bearing in mind the caution that hormones and brain structure play a role in gender differences but are not the whole story."
- Sarah Hrdy, author of Mother Nature
- Daniel Goleman author of Emotional Intelligence
Some of the authors that criticized the content of the book include:
- Evan Balaban and Rebecca M. Young, in a review in Nature
- Evan Balaban and Rebecca M. Young called The Female Brain a "melodrama" "riddled with scientific errors" and "fail[ing] to meet even the most basic standards of scientific accuracy and balance" and that "human sex differences are elevated almost to the point of creating different species, yet virtually all differences in brain structure, and most differences in behaviour, are characterized by small average differences and a great deal of male–female overlap at the individual level".</ref>
- Cordelia Fine, in her book Delusions of Gender
- Robin Marantz Henig in The New York Times
- Professor Mark Liberman in a series of articles via his Language Log blog
Brizendine was given the tongue-in-cheek 2006 Becky Award, which is given to "people or organizations who have made outstanding contributions to linguistic misinformation".
Response to criticisms
Brizendine later made some concessions to those who felt that this book overemphasised gender-based differences, saying: "Males and females are more alike than they are different. After all, we are the same species".
In other media
The Female Brain was loosely adapted as a romantic comedy movie of the same name in 2017. Brizendine served as the inspiration for the film's main character.
See also
