Introduction

• My Personal Journey into The Boy Crisis

PART I: Is There Really a Boy Crisis?

1 The Crisis of Our Sons' Mental Health

2 The Crisis of Our Sons' Physical Health

3 The Crisis of Our Sons' Economic Health

4 The Crisis of Our Sons' Education

5 The Crisis of Our Sons Worldwide

6 Why Are We So Blind to the Boy Crisis?

PART II: Why the Boy Crisis Isn't Your Fault

7 The Boy Crisis: A Problem Created by a Solution

8 The Path-to-Purpose Generation Gap

• The Power of Purpose
  
  
  • "I never thought you cared enough to ask."
• Your Son's Unconscious Wisdom
• Can a "Real Man" Transition from Provider-Protector to Nurturer-Connector?

9 The "Hero Paradox": Value Yourself by Not Valuing Yourself

• A Hero with a Thousand Faces
• The Sirens of Social Bribes
  
  
  • Social bribes: Mom, men, the media, the military
• The Catch-22 of Your Son-as-Hero

10 Why Do More Marriages Fail in Countries That Succeed?

• The father's catch-22
• The Era of the Multi-Option Mom and the No-Option Dad
• How Did Our Daughters Avoid the Purpose Void?
• "Sorry, It's a Boy"

11 How Raising Our Sons Successfully in the Past Differs from Raising Our Sons Successfully for Their Future

• Making Money Versus Making a Difference
• How to Guide Different Boys Toward Different Senses of Purpose
• Our Sons' New Sense of Purpose: The Hero's Journey to Emotional Intelligence
• Son-Dropping

12 Raising a Balanced Son in an Out-of-Balance World

• What Happened to Pick-Up Team Sports?
• Helping Your Son Find His "Edge"
• Filling Your Son's Purpose Void: Your Son as Hero


PART IV: Dad-Deprived Boys vs. Dad-Enriched Boys



13 Dad-Deprived Boys

• Boys Who Hurt, Hurt Us
  
  
  • The Lost Boys: Mass shooters
  • ISIS: A gang of dad-deprived boys?
• Bio Dad: The Discovery of the Dad Brain
• Careers Are for Now; Children Are Forever
• The Absence of Dad Creates the Presence of Government

14 Why Are Dads So Important?

• Let Me Count the Ways

15 Rediscovering Dad

• The Generation of the Dad Rich Versus the Dad Poor
• When Does Dad Begin to Matter?
• Stepdad or Bio Dad: Does it Make a Difference?

16 What Dads Do Differently

• Boundary Enforcement (Versus Boundary Setting)
• Exploring Nature, Taking Risks
• Roughhousing: Dad as a Rough, Tough Cream Puff
• "Teachable Moments": A Little Pain for a Lot of Gain
• Challenging the Kids' Limits
• Hangout Time
• Teasing: Emotional Intelligence Training, Dad-Style?
• The Conditional or Hierarchical Dad
• The Worrier and the Warrior: The Checks and Balances of Parenting

17 In the Case of Divorce . . . The Four "Must-Dos"

18 The Father Warrior: Why Fathering Will Be a New Male Sense of Purpose

• com: The Father Warrior Meets the Have-It-All Woman
• If Men Get Paid More, Is It Realistic for a Dad to Be the Primary Parent?

19 DAD: Discrimination Against Dads

• "It Doesn't Feel Right When I See Them Together"
• Moms Have the Right to Children, Dads Have to Fight for Children
• How Did Father Knows Best Become Father Knows Less?
• Guiding Your Son to "Make a Difference"

20 The Best Parent is Both Parents, But . . .

• The Best "Parent" is an Attitude Shift
  
  
  • Fighting in front of the kids
  • No one asked why the men were drinking
  • Cheap fun for dad and son
  • Dad-inspiring movies
• When the Best "Parent" Cannot Be Both Parents
  
  
  • The Cub Scouts and character
  • Mentoring and rite-of-passage programs
  • Grandfather time
  • When the biological father is missing, can God the Father help?

  21 From "Cultural Shrug" to Cultural Shift

  • Kill Today, Love Tomorrow: The Military Dad Dilemma
  • From Father's Dime to Father's Time
  • The Government: As Problem, as Solution
    
    
    • Creating a White House Council on Boys and Men
  • Our Dads, Our Sons, Our Guns

  22 Creating Dad-Enriched Families

  PART V: Heroic Intelligence Versus Health Intelligence

  23 Heroic Intelligence Versus Health Intelligence

  • Biologically, Girls Just Live Longer, Right?
  • Social Bribes: Hollywood-Heroic Health Versus Mental and Physical Health
    
    
    • Does the new heroine mean your son won't have to risk his life for her love?
  • Health Intelligence Inventory
  • Boys' Weakness as Their Facade of Strength
  • Your Son's Body, Not His Choice
    
    
    • "First and ten, concussion again!"
    • My son wants to join the military. Is this good news or bad news?
  • Your Son's Body, Your Son's Choice: Resisting the Sirens of Social Bribes

  24 Emotional Intelligence and Mental Health

  • The Barriers to a Boy's Emotional Intelligence
  • Behind Your Son's Mask
    
    
    • "I'm fine . . . Just leave me alone."
    • Helping your son take risks in life without risking his life
  • How Heroic Intelligence and Emotional Intelligence Play Out in Everyday Life
    
    
    • Moving to better neighborhoods helps girls and hurts boys
    • The bully and the bullied
    • Helping both the bully and the bullied
  • Eighteen Steps Toward Integrating Emotional and Physical Health Intelligence into Heroic Intelligence

  25 Reversing Depression, Preventing Suicide

  • Causes of Suicide
    
    
    • Women cry, men die
    • If no human doing, no human being
    • Suicide is contagious
  • Diagnosing Danger: The Warren Farrell Male Depression/Suicide Inventory (WFMDI)
  • Preventing Suicide

  26 Hidden Hazards to Your Son's Health

  • The "Sperm Crisis": To Be, or Not to Be
  • Drinking and Drugs
  • The Unholy Trinity: Obesity, Diabetes, and Erectile Dysfunction

  27 From Hurt People Hurting People to Healed People Healing People

  • Refilling the Empathy Void
  • Couples' Communication: Your Children's Best Inheritance

  PART VI: ADHD: Treatment With or Without Medication

  28 The New Neural Crisis

  • A New Spin on ADHD

  29 The Four Faces of ADHD

  30 The Many Causes of ADHD

  • Addressing the Cause to Heal the Brain

  31 Natural Solutions to Restore Dopamine Function

  32 Natural Supplements for Better Brain Performance

  Conclusion

  • Your Mission: Guiding Your Son to Discover His Mission
  • Extending Gender Liberation to Dads
  • From Cultural Shrug to Cultural Mission: A Gender Liberation Movement

  Appendix A: Family Dinner Night: The Five Essentials

  Appendix B: The Boy Crisis List: The Benefits of Dad, the Dangers of Dad Deprivation

  Bibliography

  Acknowledgments

  About the Authors