Boy Talk: How You Can Help Your Son Express His Emotions

At last, a book about boys that doesn't rely on the testosterone theory of sex differences. Instead, psychologist Mary Polce-Lynch offers gender glasses to view the different ways that boys and girls learn to understand and express their feelings. Boy Talkis a powerful manifesto that urges readers to stop governing boy's inner lives by social norms. The heart of this resistance involves families and communities in breaking the "pack rules"--the cultural imperatives that restrict boys' access to and expression of their emotions.

Polce-Lynch is equally adept at detailing the big picture of our culture's discomfort with boys' emotions and a frame of strategy that supports their emotional development. Well-written chapters explore the cost of unexpressed emotion, the link between emotions and temperament, the development of empathy, alternatives to aggression, and a curriculum for critiquing media. The book counsels parents to become "emotional detectives" and describes high-impact techniques, including mirroring, blending, naming, and modeling. Engaging in its scope and detail, Boy Talk will change your conversations with young men. --Barbara Mackoff