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Hardcover
Publisher: Free Press
In the first book to address a health crisis that is striking men of all ages, three national experts present a frank and explosive look at what men really think and feel about their bodies, offering hope to millions who are suffering in silence. More than ever, men are struggling with the same enormous pressure to achieve physical perfection that women have dealt with for centuries. From compulsive weightlifting to steroid use, from hair plugs to cosmetic surgery, growing numbers of men are taking the quest for perfect muscles, skin, and hair too far, crossing the line from normal interest to pathological obsession. This new obsession with appearance, known as the Adonis Complex, afflicts boys and men of all ages and from all walks of life. In its more severe forms, the Adonis Complex poses a health threat that is as insidious and deadly as eating disorders are for women and girls. But this groundbreaking book offers hope and help for the men caught in the oppressive cycle of body obsession. Harrison Pope, Katharine Phillips, and Roberto Olivardia reveal the often hidden signs and symptoms of the Adonis Complex. Weightlifting and exercise compulsions: Their quest for a more muscular body can become so single-minded that men often sacrifice relationships and career goals and may even stunt their emotional and physical development. Body Dysmorphic Disorder: Unlike healthy men, those with body image problems have no idea how they really look -- and obsessively try to fix flaws that others don't notice. Boys as young as six or eight report body dissatisfaction, and as a result many suffer loss of self-esteem or depression. Eating disorders: Several million men have suffered from compulsive binge eating or from anorexia nervosa and bulimia. Countless others with milder forms of eating disorders diet and worry about being fat even when they actually look just fine. Steroid abuse: Trying to achieve increasingly unrealistic physical ideals, more than a million men -- including a large number of teenagers -- are abusing steroids. Millions more are buying billions of dollars' worth of "muscle-building" food supplements and diet aids. Creating a down-to-earth program for change, the authors introduce two original diagnostic tools. The first, a simple thirteen-question quiz, helps readers identify the extent of their body image concerns. The second, the Body Image Test, helps readers learn how they perceive their bodies and how they think others see them. Using the compelling and insightful stories of many boys and men, the authors address a wide range of topics, from coping with sex and intimacy problems and difficulties at work, to low self-esteem and shame. They also explain how to seek medication treatment and specialized forms of therapy for more extreme cases. With this book, men suffering from the Adonis Complex will have the power to change their lives.
You see them everywhere. With their bulging arms and deltoids and pecs, not to mention their rippling abdominal muscles, they appear on magazine covers, in underwear ads, in action movies. And American men have noticed them; after a generation of being bombarded by images of idealized male physiques, men are growing increasingly insecure about their own appearance. The authors have studied everything from bodybuilders to Playgirl centerfolds and concluded that the images presented to men and women have gotten steadily more muscular. As a result of this bombardment of pumped-up male imagery, American men have been developing eating disorders, working out to the point of obsession, and taking steroids. None of this is for health or sports performance but rather to develop a physique that matches those seen on the cover of Muscle & Fitness or in the next squat rack over. Another consequence is a condition the authors call "muscle dysmorphia," also known as "reverse anorexia" or just "bigorexia." In this, men who are large and muscular look in the mirror and see someone who is puny and frail. So they pump iron and eat and take steroids and swell to ever-larger proportions, while being too ashamed of their bodies to take off their sweatshirts at the beach. The authors postulate that all this has to do with the rising power of women in society. To back this up, they produce timelines showing how women's-rights milestones correlate with increasing images of men as sex objects. What's the solution? The authors list some Web sites to help men suffering from the Adonis Complex to find therapists familiar with the problem. Sometimes antidepressants can work. But for most people, the answer is to understand that the images of perfect male physiques they see are unattainable, and that no one really expects them to look like that anyway. --Lou Schuler
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| The Adonis Complex |
| Customer Rating: 5 out of 5 |
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Good educational book for males to understand other males with body concerns and females to understand the male psyche regarding their body concerns.
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| Long-overdue study on a "modern" men's crisis. |
| Customer Rating: 5 out of 5 |
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The same impossible expectations regarding attaining the "perfect" body that have been relentlessly imposed on women by (mostly) the media are now being imposed on men--albeit in a different context. This book examines the lengths that some men will go to in order to attain the "perfect" body--and the physical, mental and emotional damage that can result from trying to live up to unrealistic standards. While I do agree that staying fit is important I can assure you that ( in normal situations) it's NOT the guy with the most muscular or well-built body that wins. Face it: low self-esteem is what drives both women AND men to aspireto attaining the "Perfect" body knowing full well it's impossible.
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| needed book |
| Customer Rating: 5 out of 5 |
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I have a son and a daughter who struggle with body image. I could start a library with the books I own about a girl's struggle with an eating disorder! Books for males are hard to find. I'm thankful for this book. I first read it at the library, but ordered it because I wanted my own copy. It points out symptoms, has tests, case studies...a little of everything. Men tend to deny there is a problem and this book made it very clear that my son had one. Good read.
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| Very Interesting Read but a Little Skewed |
| Customer Rating: 4 out of 5 |
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The book was very entertaining, but clearly did not distinguish between healthy work-out and diet behaviors and pathology. Bodybuilding is an event that requires a certain amount ot restriction to succeed; based on the acedotal evidence presented in this book, all bodyuilders may be viewed as ill. Furthermore, many women could be diagnosed with a "male" body image problem.
In terms of the attractiveness of more muscular men, I found the pictures in the book to be misleading. I am a women and, based on the ideal male physique test, I picked a man with a muscle index number (I forget the name they gave it) of about 23. I then calculated the muscle index number for my bodybuilder x-boyfriend, who I thought was absolutely perfect, and he came out as a 27. Clearly I like men who are more muscular than what the book test and accompanying pictures suggested.
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| Are you kidding me. |
| Customer Rating: 3 out of 5 |
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I've looked through the reviews and the book I'll simply say this much, Many of the people "who built themselves to unsafe and an undesireable" level of development have been athletes most of there lives. In a country that is obesity ridden where lazy people are looking "the magic pill" it is ridiculous to disparage those who've worked hard for the bodies they've built myself included.
If you look at any of the guys in the magazines, 9 times out of ten they were involved in various sports before they got into physique competitions or fitness modeling, the discipline they learned in athletics carried over. In nature it's the biggest and strongest male who usually has his choice of female interaction. However women are bombarded from their teen years in that the ideal type of guy is the scrawny, flat to sunken chested, pencil armed and legged surfer or rocker kind guy who is often times smaller than they are.
Those who want to maximize their capacities are on the right track it's the jealous and lazy types who need to reevaluate their own fitness and self improvement programs
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