The Female Brain

Why are women more verbal than men? Why do women remember details of fights that men can't remember at all? Why do women tend to form deeper bonds with their female friends than men do with their male counterparts? These and other questions have stumped both sexes throughout the ages.

Now, pioneering neuropsychiatrist Louann Brizendine, M.D., brings together the latest findings to show how the unique structure of the female brain determines how women think, what they value, how they communicate, and who they love. While doing research as a medical student at Yale and then as a resident and faculty member at Harvard, Louann Brizendine discovered that almost all of the clinical data in existence on neurology, psychology, and neurobiology focused exclusively on males. In response to the overwhelming need for information on the female mind, Brizendine established the first clinic in the country to study and treat women's brain function.

In The Female Brain, Dr. Brizendine distills all her findings and the latest information from the scientific community in a highly accessible book that educates women about their unique brain/body/behavior.

The result: women will come away from this book knowing that they have a lean, mean, communicating machine. Men will develop a serious case of brain envy.

"Finally, a satisfying answer to Freud's question, 'What does a woman want?' Louann Brizendine has done a great favor for every man who wants to understand the puzzling women in his life. A breezy and enlightening guide to women-and a must-read for men."
-Daniel Goleman, author of Social Intelligence

"The Female Brain is sassy, witty, reassuring, and great fun. All women-and the men who love them-should read this book."
-Christiane Northrup, M.D., author of The Wisdom of Menopause

"Louann Brizendine has been a pioneer in using medical science to empower her women patients. Now she seeks to share her hard-won knowledge with a wider audience. The result is a timely, insightful, readable, and altogether magnificent book."
-Sarah Blaffer Hrdy, author of Mother Nature

"An eye-opening account of the biological foundations of human behavior. Destined to become a classic in the field of gender studies."
-Marilyn Yalom, author of A History of the Breast 

"In a breezy, playful style, Brizendine follows the development of women's brains from birth through the teen years, to courting, pregnancy, childbirth and child-rearing, and on to menopause and beyond."
-Deborah Tannen, Washington Post

, M.D., a neuropsychiatrist at the University of California, San Francisco, is the founder of the Women's and Teen Girls' Mood and Hormone Clinic. She was previously on faculty at the Harvard Medical School and is a graduate of the Yale University School of Medicine and the University of California, Berkeley, in neurobiology. She lives in the San Francisco Bay area with her husband and son.