Until eight weeks old, every fetal brain looks female – female is nature’s default gender setting (…) A huge testosterone surge beginning in the eight week will turn this unisex brain male by killing off some cells in the communication centers and growing more cells in the sex and aggression centers (…) How does this fetal fork in the road affect us ? For one thing because of the larger communication center, this girl will grow up to be more talkative than her brother (…) For another, it defines our innate biological destiny, coloring the lens through which each of us views and engages the world.
I’ve heard about this book a few months ago through the presentation of Martin Rossman where he strongly recommends this work to understand the way the brain actually works.
Dr Louann Brizendine is a neuropsychiastrist and though her book may have received a couple of tough reviews for being a bit too cutely, it remains quite valuable as it goes way beyond cheap psychology to delve into neurosciences. The goal here is to understand the differences between how men and women brain circuitry work in a given situation. This also puts into perspective the natural advantage women have in the social business, a topic #hypertextual has discussed last year.
For some reason, this book was in the bibliothèque of our holiday host in Dublin : being a compulsive reader and seeing that book there I just could not stop from going through it. A very easy read and a strongly recommended one for you and your partner if you want to go beyond the same old squirmishes.
This other one is just as telling : keep it in mind to fully enjoy your summer holidays :
Males have double the brain space and processing power devoted to sex as females. Just as women have an eight lane superhighway for processing emotion while men have a small country road, men have O’Hare airport as a hub for processing thoughts about sex whereas women have the airfield nearby that land for small and private planes.
#hypertextual 