The Essential Difference: Men, Women and the Extreme Male Brain

doi:10.1136/bmj.327.7405.57

BMJ 2003;327:57 (5 July), doi:10.1136/bmj.327.7405.57

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The Essential Difference: Men, Women and the Extreme Male Brain

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

Men and women have different brains. This notion has been thesubject of increasing scientific analysis, media interest,and pulp psychology of the "men are from..." variety. Now,Simon Baron-Cohen (professor of psychology at Cambridge University)has drawn on 20 years of clinical and academic experience andattempted to summarise the research on this subject—animpressive proportion of which is his own—and its implicationsfor the future.

Simon Baron-Cohen

Allen Lane, £16.99,pp 263 ISBN 0 713 99671 4

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Baron-Cohen argues that there are three kinds of normal humanbrain: "empathising" (type E), "systemising" (type S), and "balanced" (type B, which is a meld of types E and S). Witha reader friendly style and using fascinating data, he stateshis central claim that, on average, men have a type S brain,while the female brain is predominantly type E. There are exceptions,in that some men may have . . . [Full text of this article]

Iain McClure, consultant child and adolescent psychiatrist

Vale of Leven Hospital, Alexandria, West Dunbartonshire imcclure@vol.scot.nhs.uk