Why gender differences in neuropsychiatry are theoretically important.
Neuropsychiatry is the study of mind-warping
disturbances of the brain. As is the
case for several sectors of medicine such as endocrinology and immunology, neuropsychiatry offers several opportunities
for observing spectacular sex differences.
To the extent that neural causes (etiologies) of psychic disturbances
are detected, accepted and understood,
neuropsychiatry can serve as a magnifying glass for interpreting sex
differences in normal brain function.
Indeed, disturbances of the brain
which are relatively sex-specific often exaggerate underlying sex differences
which occur as a "silent" baseline in normals. Most men are more frequently angry than women
and most women cry more frequently than men do. Now imagine those traits exaggerated by a
factor of ten: there is a psychopath
lurking inside nearly every man and a phobic depressive in nearly every
woman. Even more subtle personality
differences between men and women get exaggerated in gender-typical psychiatric
disorders. For example, one study found that pathologically anxious patients had a high
level of "external locus control" compared to normal control
subjects. External locus of control is
a cognitive-moral-personality trait typical of women. It consists of a sort of attitude of helplessness, a sense of non-empowerment, a feeling that others control one's
destiny. And of course, the whole spectrum of anxiety disorders is
more prevalent in the female sex.
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