The Adonis Complex: How to Identify, Treat and Prevent Body Obsession in Men and Boys

This is an effective, data-driven manual to understand muscular body dysmorphia (bigorexia) in men. The book also considers male BDD more broadly to cover other features of the body, particularly hair loss and penis size. I think this is a really useful book. I read it as someone who has lifted weights for a few years and was starting to feel the malaise of more difficult gains. This book is a good window into the reasons that men would feel they need steroids, and offers a really sympathetic portrait of the male mind in the 21st century.My complaint is that, as others have noticed, the book's language is sensationalist. Given a data set, the authors will lean on the most paranoid interpretation of the data to make their point. That said, the sensationalism is not consistent. It seems only to pop up where the authors are hoping to emphasize the muscular dysmorphia is a real problem and that individuals (whether patients or loved ones) should take it seriously. In contracts, their chapter on gay men was very anti-sensationalist. It's a mixed bag on this front, and the sensationalism doesn't really distract from the overall credibility of the work. -Ryan Mease

"The Adonis Complex" touches on a subject I've been interested in since childhood: the impact specific body types have on our psyche as well as the opposite sex. The salient point of the book is that male and females view things totally differently in defining attractiveness. According to the study, it isn't always what we think is the ideal, but what we think others believe to be the ideal. From a male perspective, when we see a woman ogling a muscular male, we believe that to be her ideal type. However, in her mind, she may prefer less muscle and more brains. Men, as visual creatures, view her ogling as her standard not indicative of mere appreciation of a certain body type. Consequently, we strive for the kind of body we "think" women want. In other words, what people say and do, might be different than how they really feel--Cognitive Dissonance."The Adonis Complex" is a good book in explaining how a media-centric society has made males equally insecure and obsessive over their physical appearance as has been the case traditionally for women. The book does a great job of breaking down the components of being physically "Big," but does not make a compelling case on how to overcome media influence. The typical bromides of "Loving yourself for who you are...and looking for acceptance within" are always the high road, but does very little in truly making a person feel complete within a social structure that values physicality. I recommend the book as a means of dissecting this psychosis for male victims and an aid for women who may come in contact with such males.Edward BrownCore Edge Image & Charisma Institute

This book was an eye opener and a powerful read. I am a personal trainer and I constantly see many of the exact behaviors mentioned in the book, regarding muscle dysmorphia, which is highly prevalent at most corporate fitness centers.I can appreciate that Dr's Pope, Phillips, and Olivardia address the most extreme cases, while maintaining that the examples are meant to be extreme, but that lesser forms of the same conditions exist. They also examined that the overwhelming majority of practicing doctors know very little about male body image disorders, and, among the key sub-issues, steroid use. It was once mentioned that a specific experienced steroid user knew more about anabolic steroids than nearly all doctors, which is something I see on a regular basis.This book was a fantastic read and addresses a pertinent, albeit rarely discussed, problem among men.

I met Dr Pope through a friend of mine a few years ago. My friend introduced me to him because Dr Pope was looking for weightlifters to study. It wasn't until I had seen Dr Pope featured as an expert on a couple of different health programs, did I look into his book.The book is quite insightful on how we, as men, view ourselves, which differs on how the world sees us.BTW, if you ever mean Dr. Pope, the first thing you notice is that this 60+ year old man of medicine is quite FIT and energetic. Very intelligent and attentive to detail.

I have a son and a daughter who struggle with body image. I could start a library with the books I own about a girl's struggle with an eating disorder! Books for males are hard to find. I'm thankful for this book. I first read it at the library, but ordered it because I wanted my own copy. It points out symptoms, has tests, case studies...a little of everything. Men tend to deny there is a problem and this book made it very clear that my son had one. Good read.

This is a fantastic reading that captures a hidden problem within the male gender that receives more attention with females instead. Having body issues has always been labeled as a female issue or a problem only for gay men. This book shows reasons as to what helped to form this idea in the minds of many men and how the idea is perpetuated in magazines and other forms of media.

great book -- definitely reveals a lot about body image in men that i'd never considered before.

Invaluable for understanding BDD! A must have for researchers and therapists.