Breaking the Macho Code

About the Book

Breaking the Macho Code: An Exploration of the Patriarchal Mind and Culture examines the false, destructive image of male identity and masculinity propagated by the Code and how the Code fails to give men, in Eric Ericksons’ phrase, “a coherent identity” capable of navigating the turbulent waters of love, sex and relationship. The code sets men up for relationships with women that can be dependent, obsessive, even violent.

When the O.J. Simpson case broke, we thought, “Surely now, Someone will seriously discuss how men like O.J. melt down and get themselves into these disastrous states of mind. But we were wrong, nobody did. The media coverage of the case, even serious media, never went any deeper than that of the supermarket tabloids.

Code examines how deeply this code is imbedded into our culture and our consciousness at large and its psychological ramifications. It sets men up for Jung’s anima projection which is an insane quest for goddess inhabiting the inner reaches of our imagination and psyche. A dream which keeps us from the path of love.

A number of authors claim to tell women how men are, spilling the beans books, like What Men Don’t Want Women to Know: The Secrets, The Lies, The Unspoken Truth by Smith and Doe Staff. These books reveal many nasty realities about many men to their lady readers, but they avoid the larger question, “Why are men like this?” Code is the first book to wrestle with this question which must be taken on. Women know very little about men and men often don’t know that much about themselves. I wandered around in the dark a long time myself. Code is my personal, gonzo account of my own discovery of the code both within myself and our culture.

Psychology, in its fullest sense, is a “Knowing of the soul.” With Code, I hope to contribute to our knowing of the male soul.

About the Author

Paul Hennig writes out of his long experience with the Macho world beginning with the fraternity house and locker room at the University of Buffalo and Cornell. Then the bachelor officer’s quarters and squadron rooms of the US Air Force while flying RB-66s out of Germany and England. He left the USAF to prepare for the Roman Catholic priesthood with the Basilian Fathers where he studied theology, philosophy and metaphysics at St. Michael’s College at the University of Toronto. After five years and falling in love with a raven haired Irish beauty, he decided that a celibate life was not for him. After graduate studies at Canisis College and Buffalo State, he taught at Buffalo State, Humber and Mentor Colleges. In between teaching jobs he was a professional yacht skipper, sailing instructor and boat builder.

He wrote Code while living and working on a thoroughbred horse farm in King Township, Ontario where he writes, plays tennis and skis with his twenty-four year old son.