Apr 10
8

I Don’t Want to Talk About It: Overcoming the Secret Legacy of Male Depression

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  • ISBN13: 9780684835396
  • Condition: NEW
  • Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.

Product Description
Twenty years of experience treating men and their families has convinced psychotherapist Terrence Real that depression is a silent epidemic in men — that men hide their condition from family, friends, and themselves to avoid the stigma of depression’s “un-manliness.” Problems that we think of as typically male — difficulty with intimacy, workaholism, alcoholism, abusive behavior, and rage-are really attempts to escape depression. And these escape attempts only hur… More >>

I Don’t Want to Talk About It: Overcoming the Secret Legacy of Male Depression

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This entry was posted on April 8, 2010 at 3:45 pm. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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5 Responses to "I Don’t Want to Talk About It: Overcoming the Secret Legacy of Male Depression"

  • Crazy Mel W says:
    April 8, 2010 at 4:10 pm

    When I say I suffered in my depression I should say “we” because I dragged a lot of people down with me. I did therapy, read books, took medications. This book helped me, I believe, more than any other single thing that I did.

    Mr. Real writes from experience and with knowledge from both sides of the couch. As he composites out and recreates therapy sessions, you, as a depressed man, should see yourself. You can see where you’ve been and get a preview of where you’re going.

    Each chapter ends on an upbeat. It does not end on a sappy upbeat. This is no Stuart Smalley book, no pop psychology here. It is a real upbeat, real hope on a deep level. I actually copied paragraphs from this text onto my own paper and carried them along with me.

    It takes courage not to be depressed. This book makes this clear. It also makes it abundantly clear that it can be done.
    Rating: 5 / 5

  • Headbang8 says:
    April 8, 2010 at 6:19 pm

    I’ve struggled with depression since childhood. I’ve read volume after volume on the subject. Most of it, however earnest, just blows smoke.

    This one’s different. Real is the only therapist I’ve read who captures the anger behind depression–dammit, harm has been done to innocent people, and the pain they suffer is unrecognised, devalued or morally stigmatised becuse the sufferers happen to be male.

    The rage they feel against the perpetrator(s)never gets a focus. After all, it would be focussed on the people who cared for you as you grew. What does one do if the hand that beats you is the hand that feeds you? You do what you need to survive the moment. You stay fed. Only later do you fail to thrive.

    Terrence Real focusses his own rage on this injustice–and rage, indeed, he does. He suffered the abuse that leads to depression, and now helps men face it squarely.

    Like an ugly scab, healing ain’t always pretty. If you never properly clean and dress a wound, grotesque scars disfigure you. Real tells the stories of men who have put the time, effort and care into healing. It ain’t easy. But having done so, their scars heal clean, and a happier life begins.

    Other so-called self-help books (the “inner-child” movement springs to mind) seem to argue that learning to love your scars is the road to happiness. Poppycock.

    (I might also add that this is less a self-help book than a political and moral treatise. If sufferers find it helpful, that’s a by-product.)

    Personally, I think Real lets women off the hook too easily in this book. Having endured the female-dominated “caring professions” to effect my own cure, I think Real ought to empahsise the complicity of women in the patriarchy (which he rightly labels as damaging to both sexes).

    Even quite enlightened women patronise men who try to be strong and scorn them when they allow themselves to be weak. In their effort to stamp out male aggression, they demean male strength–a strength which women who wish to heal might well wish they had.

    Real is the first scholar I’ve read to point out that the patriarchy actually harms men more than it harms women. It certainly proves fatal more often.

    He is the first therapist I know to make a case that men are MORE emotional than women; not the insensitive droogs of feminist caricature.

    Against a background of shallow, ineffectual, touchy-feely self-help gurus, Real stands out as a straight talker. To borrow a phrase from the patriarchy, he’s results-oriented. And that ain’t a bad thing.

    Real? An aptly named author.
    Rating: 5 / 5

  • Anonymous says:
    April 8, 2010 at 6:27 pm

    “I Just Don’t Want to Talk About It” by Terrence
    Real may just save my marriage and give me
    back the man I married 33 years ago. As I read
    this book, I cried. My husband and I were on
    every page. Finally, I understand the hell
    we’ve been living in for so long. A psychotherapist for twenty
    years, author Terrence Real exposes the pain
    the isolation, the workaholism,the disconnection
    that signal covert male depression.
    He is conservative in his estimates. I would say

    most men suffer from depression at some point in their lives.
    And they suffer longer because they have been
    taught to repress, to deny. Thank you, Terry.
    I’m bringing your book to our next counseling session.
    We may live happily ever after, after all.
    Rating: 5 / 5

  • obediah says:
    April 8, 2010 at 8:58 pm

    This is a well written book about male depression, filled with case studies that the author has overseen throughout his years as a psychotherapist. The style of prose is easy to read and the book avoids technical jargon.

    A distinction is made between covert (or hidden) depression and overt depression – the type which is plain for the world to see. Covert depression in many cases is hidden from the victim himself. The author suggests a strong link between covert depression and addictive behavior.

    Although the book was very educational, it left me with an overwhelming feeling of sadness. Case after case after case of abuse, violence, despair and hate leaves the reader with a profound sorrow and a feeling that the world is a terrible place.

    Male depression is a “legacy” in the sense that it can be passed down through the generations. In many cases, a father is not able to come to grips with his own psychological afflictions and in turn these manifest themselves in the child when he grows up to be a man.

    Male depression can also spring from cultural expectations. Men try to conform to the stereotype of “strong, silent”. If a man is an alcoholic or addicted gambler, these are conditions that are seen as curable. However, if a man chooses to discuss his emotions or behaves in a manner which might be considered as feminine, then he is avoided like a leper and socially ostracized.

    The book concludes with a powerful message – that it is necessary in life to nurture relationships and have a goal in life that is larger than personal gratification. This is a personal quest on which I am currently embarking.

    I have no negative things to say about the book and would highly recommend its purchase!
    Rating: 5 / 5

  • Anonymous says:
    April 8, 2010 at 10:18 pm

    real’s book hits home at the tragic legacy of male depression. despite case study after case study which at times makes one wonder whether one is perhaps more depressed than one really is, this book is an excellent first dip into understanding that men are not weak or alone in feeling depression.

    i say first dip because it provides no answers but rather will lead you (as it did me) on the terribly difficult, yet very fulfilling, journey of self discovery that is necessary to fully heal from any form of depression (covert or otherwise). with further reading, personal growth and self evaluation, you will look back and give the book high marks, but only because it launched you on a further path of growth and discovery.

    read this, then begin the really hard work of personal growth.
    Rating: 4 / 5

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