Louann Brizendine is a charlatan; "The Female Brain" is a pack of lies

[kragen]

A friend of mine recently posted this link to her blog: Excerpt: 'The Female Brain': Learn What Women Really ThinkDon't forward around nonsense like this! Brizendine's book (excerpted at the above URL) has been rather thoroughly discredited. ABC's failure to update their web page to make this clear reveals the thin nature of their commitment to

Comments

[zestyping]

I agree that many claims in the book are nonsense (we needed Factville yesterday!). But is Brizendine confused or dishonest?

[kragen]

Dishonest, because the UK version of the book didn't correct the baseless words-per-day statistics she got from Allen Pease, which she had promised to correct when Liberman brought it up.

[dancingyel]

I agree that the book has many things wrong with it...however, calling someone a charlatan strikes me as a strong and rather personal attack. Knowing Louann and her general credentials, I'm probably biased towards giving her the benefit of the doubt on the dishonesty vs. confusion issue. I understand that others aren't necessarily willing to do so, but there's no need for name-calling.

[kragen]

Do you believe that name-calling serves no function in general, or in this specific case? If it's in this specific case, when do you think there would be a need for name-calling?

[dancingyel]

I think name-calling, in general, only serves to aggravate people. I suppose if the goal is to do so, then name-calling is good. However, I think that in most cases, the goal is to have a conversation about a topic, and even if it's a heated conversation, there's no need to do extra things to create anger.

[kragen]

Well, in this case, I don't really care what Brizendine thinks, and whether she gets aggravated or not. I'm not interested in having a conversation with her, because in her book, she's demonstrated a lack of integrity that prevents me from drawing any conclusions to any factual statements she might make.

My point in posting this is to warn people that, if they're interested in a conversation investigating what things actually are the case and what things are not, then they should disregard what Brizendine has to say, because she's engaged in a different enterprise; what she's writing doesn't derive from some kind of independent investigation of the truth, but is, rather, bullshit.

I think that disseminating this kind of negative reputational information serves an important function in the process of discourse; by directing attention away from the charlatans and bullshit artists, it makes it possible to actually have a productive conversation.

[kragen]

sometimes she argued this to a more forceful degree than the argument was probably due-- and your documentation pointing out her errors in a few of her citations was useful, but that doesn't make her a charlatan Kragen. Mistaken and sloppy, sure. But the end argument isn't a complete fiction in toto. The question of veracity is instead, one of degree.

Even a stopped clock is right twice a day; it's really difficult to write something that's a "complete fiction in toto", especially when you're faced with the constraint of writing something that passes as plausible. The Nature review summarized her level of accuracy as follows:

The Female Brain disappointingly fails to meet even the most basic standards of scientific accuracy and balance. The book is riddled with scientific errors and is misleading about the processes of brain development, the neuroendocrine system, and the nature of sex differences in general.

I think that, if that review is an accurate description of the book's level of accuracy (and the other comments suggest

YOU'RE RIGHT, AND Women And Men Are More Alike Than Different!

[anonymous]

http://ec.europa.eu/research/research-eu/women/article_women16_en.html... )

Re: YOU'RE RIGHT, AND Women And Men Are More Alike Than Different!

[anonymous]

http://ec.europa.eu/research/research-eu/women/article_women16_en.html... )

[manichad]

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