Routledge, coming in early 2027
This book is intended to help clinicians and psychoanalysts who work with boys and men in their practices, teach them in schools, and mentor them in many other settings. It’s meant to be a men’s mental health treatment guide, but is useful for people in many lines of work.
I update some of my previous articles with a perspective on why they matter to a central topic of this book: how do theory and technique intersect? That also means looking at where they don’t intersect and can be confusing. Topics covered include:
- Heroism, which is a potent psychological force for many boys and men
- Compulsive screen use
- Use of telehealth
- Boys and men with a chronic illness
- Autism spectrum disorders
- Love online that often goes south
- Gender perimeters
- Dads who seem like scarecrows
- The appeal of antiheroes
My book will be published by Routledge in early 2027.
“….When it comes to doing therapy and analysis with boys and men, even those of us who are supposed to know are often lost and confused.
—Prof. Andrew Samuels, Former Chair
Prize-winning author Robert Tyminski offers an original, grounded, compassionate and inspiring range of approaches to clients and patients who may not really want to be in the room with us at all.”
U.K. Council for Psychotherapy
Editor of The Father
This book is about boys and men in psychotherapy and analysis. Many are reluctant patients, often coming in only at the insistence of their families, spouses, partners, schools, and workplaces. Many start a psychotherapy but quit after a few sessions, sometimes after just one. Even under better conditions, boys and men can be prickly about opening up because they have learned to not show vulnerability. It is often, in their minds, embarrassing, humiliating, shameful, and foreign to them. Why should they risk coming in for therapy when a lot of their life experiences have told them not to be dependent, to limit what they show of their feelings, and to rely on themselves?
It’s a big ask that many don’t believe will make their lives any better. Why do some of them stick it out? Why do many of them quit in frustration? And why do most of them never even consider getting this kind of help? My aim in this book is to show that there are successful ways to engage with boys and men, to help them develop a vocabulary for their feelings, and to finding out that what’s going on inside themselves is rewarding and not feminizing. I will look at different clinical problems that emerge in this work, discuss how I have handled the challenges of engaging, and what I learned along this way. More often than not, I found the theories that I was taught to be wanting and inapplicable. I have long wondered why this has been the case.