Rating: 
Summary: Wanted to Understand the Male's Side of the Gender War
Review: I was told about this book in both a psychology class and in a Communication Between the Genders class, college classes composed mostly of women. During the semester, I was taken aback by my female classmates' intense, even brutal, anger at men and how that anger motivated their attitudes and behaviors. These women had little or no desire to discover ways to neutralize the tensions in the male-female combat zone, but preferred to blame their failings and frustrations on men. Post-divorce, I was not without my own anger, but I could pretty much well identify its causes. Their anger, I noticed, seemed driven by forces they could neither identify nor define. These observations compelled me to find honest answers. I wanted to understand, as objectively as possible, what had created the devastating rift between men and women, beyond the pat explanations espoused by the second wave of the Feminist Movement and the mass media. Sam Keen's book shed much light on the problem with the simple observation that men suffer, and are in these dire straits, because they have not freed themselves from their psychological and emotional bondage to women; they can never define themselves as separate beings so long as they "invest so much of their identity" in women. I am grateful to Keen for providing me this profound understanding and the experience of feeling true empathy for men. Just the same, as long as men choose to remain bonded in these ways to women, and so long as women [and for selfish gains, I might add] proudly wield the power they know they hold over men, no amount of empathy can change the status quo.
Rating: 
Summary: A mindless compendium of Pop Psych and Pop Philosophy
Review: In all honesty I did not find one original or insightful thought in this over-ripe, and cliche ridden Pop Psych manual. There are no answers, here, for the troubled man of the 90's. A friend, who has some real behavioral and interpersonal problems recommended it. I hoped to gain some insight into his conflicts by reading this book. I fail to see how it could help him. He had better look elsewhere. The one star is just a courtesy from one health provider to another.
Rating:
Summary: A great book for men to understand their gender beuty.
Review: It does not provide full answers to the questions in mind,but gives you a tool to think and quest. Making you understand all the true virtues of being a man.An excellent one indeed.
Rating:
Summary: So disappointing I had to write something.
Review: Sam Keen's bio is very impressive. The reviews are impressive. But I sent it back to AMAZON and want to warn others so as not to waste everyone's time with returns. IF you think you might need to go to a psychotherapist to get your man-ness in order.... this may well be the book for you. It sounds like Sam's been thru it all and wants to make a big deal about it. If this is not your situation, the book is complete dribble. I had hoped that it would deal with - - something like "the evolutionary value of testosterone which today may be causing serious "four-wheel-drive" problems and now - in our more peaceful times - must somehow be defused or refocused or something??..."
Rating:
Summary: A must to read, Sam Keen , wise man
Review: Sam Keens Fire in the Belly is a book every man and women should read. I love to read books written by people that are so wise. The contents have helped greatly to put the pieces of lifes puzzletogeather. I hope this message goes out to Sam. Thanks for a great book, I loved it.
Jim Morris Trial B.C.
Rating:
Summary: Being an adult
Review: The crux of this piece, as well as that of the frequently[in reviews] mentioned Iron John, reflects the need to pass off what is in reality a personal lack of maturity as a social ill. If people spent as much time reflecting on their own behavior and taking responsibility for their own decisions as they spent reading this book then perhaps some of the true problems facing society could be addressed.
Rating:
Summary: Being an adult
Review: The crux of this piece, as well as that of the frequently[in reviews] mentioned Iron John, reflects the need to pass off what is in reality a personal lack of maturity as a social ill. If people spent as much time reflecting on their own behavior and taking responsibility for their own decisions as they spent reading this book then perhaps some of the true problems facing society could be addressed.
Rating: 
Summary: he skates all round the question of power
Review: The first question is of course - how does this compare with Iron John? It is not so original or deep, it is more directly helpful to men, it does at least mention women and relationships, and it shares the fault of ignoring the power problems of patriarchy and the dominance culture. It is divided into five sections: the first is on the making of a man, the emergence from the shadow of the mother; the second is on the rites of manhood, in which he discusses initiation, the warrior, work and sex; the third is on the measure of a man, where he speaks of images and exemplars; the fourth is called a primer for now and future heroes, where he talks about quests and homecomings; and the fifth is about men and women, love, marriage and intimacy - this section also includes a long series of self-help exercises. Sam Keen is a regular contributor to the magazine Psychology Today, has run many workshops for men and women, and has put on television series, so this is an easy-to-read book, which communicates well. It is quite freewheeling and careless at times, and there are some errors of fact in it: Unlike Iron John, it is not the product of deep study, discussion and meditation on mythic themes. It makes a distinction between prophetic feminism and ideological feminism, lauding the former and putting down the latter, which not only includes the man-haters but also the goddess-worshippers. He does at least mention patriarchy, and seems to see that it is a problem. But when it comes to the crucial questions of how men and women are going to change society and themselves, he skates all round the question of power as if it did not exist. He does not appear to have heard of Connell, or any of the sociologists in men's studies, who make it so clear that there is a problem of unequal social power, of unequal access to resources, of unequal participation in the great power issues of our time. And so in his discussion of men and women and their relationships it is all conducted at the level of adjustment and negotiation and fair fighting as if the ground were level and the fighting could be fair. He wants women to take responsibility for their part in the problem, as if it were merely a psychological problem which could be solved at that level. For example, in an apparently fair and balanced account of feminist demands, we get this: "A feminist vision demands sexual, artistic, economic, and political equality (Military?) It further demands that men assume an equal share in the private sphere - the creation of hearth and the rearing of children." (p196) The insertion of that one word - military - shows that he is entertaining that favourite gibe of misogynist men, that women want everything except the hard part of being a man - going to war, fighting and perhaps being killed for one's country. But the facts are, if you compare the figures, that forty times as many women die in childbirth as men die in wars. The gibe about not wanting to go to war is just that - a gibe. So in spite of all its apparent balance and reasonableness and genuinely interesting matter about men, and despite the very nice personal touches which appear throughout the book, this one also ultimately lets us down, if we want to understand what men are and what they have to do. We still have to go to the Connells, the Segals, the Kimmels, the Brods, the Hearns, and all those less glamorous people if we want to know what is really going on and what really needs to change.
Rating:
Summary: Every man should read this book.
Review: This book has so far been my favorite among all the self improvement books I've read. Its not without it's flaws, but it provides some very insightful views that are well worth checking out.
The book analyzes man's role in society, why it is what it is, what is wrong with it, and what you can do about it. At least, this is the strong point of the book. It also promises to take the reader on a mythic journey, which it didn't really do for me. The book ends a bit weakly, with conclusions clearly based on Keen's own political preferences rather than any sort of universal truth.
But despite it's flaws, the book is at times truly impressive in it's insightfulness. Even if you do not agree with Keen on everything, it's bound to lead you to think of things in a new way, and that is worth far more than the price of admission.
Rating:
Summary: Profound, life-changing material in everyday words
Review: This book is for men who have experienced their emptiness, loneliness, and longing for connection, but whose ways of dealing with these issues are limited by old paradigms and beliefs which could change if exposed to new information. This book, a real treasure, contains much of this new information. I highly, highly recommend it.
|
