Debate over gender and especially the lives of men is currently at a fever pitch, particularly in the United States. Psychoanalysis and Contemporary American Men challenges narrow stereotyped views of men by arguing that men are as complex and layered as women.

Steven Seidman has written widely in the areas of gender, sexuality, queer studies, and American culture. His books include Romantic Longings: Love in America 1830-1980, Embattled Eros: Sexual politics and Ethics in Contemporary America, and Beyond the Closet: The Transformation of Gay and Lesbian Life. He is currently a psychoanalyst in private practice in New York City, USA.

Alan Frank co-edited Intimacies: A New World of Relational Life (Routledge, 2013). He is a psychoanalyst in private practice in New York City, USA.

Preface Chapter 1: Gender Uncertainty in 21st Century America: Psychoanalysis Widens the Conversation Chapter 2: Straight Families Making Straight Boys: Phallic and Relational Threads in Boys' Early Lives Chapter 3: Gay Boyhoods and Fathers: The Gay Oedipus & Beyond Chapter 4: Authenticity: Men's Struggle to Live an Ethical Life Chapter 5: Between Abjection and the Ecstatic: The Erotic Lives of Men Chapter 6: Intimate Knots: The Unconscious Dynamics of Intimacies Afterword: A Transsituated Perspective on Bodies and Genders