The Invisibility of a Man's Pain - Excerpt from The Way Men Heal

This is chapter two from The Way Men Heal. It offers ideas about why men’s emotional pain is invisible. Let me know if you have questions.

Invisibility

It became obvious to me that the thing that had blinded me to men’s unique ways of healing was that most of their ways of healing were invisible. You simply couldn’t see them. If people can’t see them, then most people will assume they don’t exist. It has taken me years to sift through the many reasons that men’s pain is so invisible. I have come up with four factors that influence this invisibility. The four factors are: (1) the cultural taboo of a man’s emotional pain, (2) his traditional sex role of provide and protect, (3) the male dominance hierarchy, and (4) brain and hormonal sex differences.

Let’s start with the taboo of a man’s emotional pain.