My deceased friend told me she had read "Second Nature" by some man named Michael Pollan. She was a member of the English faculty and started a "writing lab" where any student with any sort of writing question or task could go for guidance and advice. I volunteered in her lab a bit and valued her opinion so I looked up the book and read it. Pretty interesting. Since then, I have read several of Pollan's subsequent books, the most recent and, to me, exciting is "How to Change Your Mind" about expanding serious scientific and medical use of psychedelics, especially eating certain mushrooms.
As you may know, I am not nor have ever been a woman. But the book "The Female Brain" by Dr. Louann Brizendine, MD gave new views of what life is like for those humans who make new humans inside their bodies. The doctor has some other books about females and males. When you ask what makes female humans and the other kind tick, a big answer is hormones, special body and mood affecting chemicals that the body produces at various stages of life. Brizendine started a hormone institute for ongoing attention to hormones.
I have a doctoral minor in philosophy and I pal around with some members of our philosophy department and my impression is that they tend to rely more or less solely on their conscious minds and discount or ignore moods and hunches and impulses. Some of them have mentioned a woman philosopher, a rarity in itself, named Martha C. Nussbaum, for her physical beauty. I came across an article by Prof.Nussbaum and was impressed at her focus on male philosophers' use of reason and logic and possible under use of attention to moods and tastes. So, I went out on a limb and bought the book "Love's Knowledge" that includes that article.
Pollan's book has impressed me with possible value of research and future applications of psychedelics and possible valuable applications in mental illness and maybe in assisting males, including older males, broaden their thinking.
