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At last, leading psychologist Simon Baron-Cohen
confirms what most of us have long suspected: male and female
brains are different. This groundbreaking and controversial
study reveals the scientific evidence (present even in one-day-old
babies) that proves female brains are better at empathizing
and communicating, while male brains are stronger at understanding
and building systems -- not just computers and machinery,
but abstract systems such as politics and music. Most revolutionary
of all, The Essential Difference also puts forward
the compelling new theory that autism (and the related condition
of Asperger Syndrome) is actually an example of the extreme
male brain, leaving those with the condition able to analyze
the most complex systems but unable to relate to others'
emotional lives.
Understanding our essential difference,
Simon Baron-Cohen concludes, may help us not just to make
sense of our partners' foibles, but to solve one of the
most mysterious scientific riddles of our time.
Simon Baron-Cohen is professor of psychology
and psychiatry at Cambridge University and director of its
Austin Research Centre. He has carried out research into
both autism and sex differences over a twenty-year career.
He is the author of Autism: The Facts and Mindblindness.
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