Much has been made, in a negative sense, of the fact that men, in general, have a superior ability to control their emotions. Certainly many men take this ability to the extreme and end up living in an emotional wasteland which is neither healthy or fulfilling as a method of living your life. However, simply because many men choose to abuse this ability by over using it does not make the ability a liability per se.

Much humor has been had at the expense of the "new-age man" who effuses and indulges his emotions. This humor arises out of our discomfort because this man is not behaving in a way that we are used to and new research by George Bonanno of Columbia University's Teachers College points to the fact that it is equally disfunctional. Men, and women for that matter, who are able and do control the expression of their emotions, delaying the expression to an appropriate time, are more well balanced than those at either end of the scale.

The message is that it is often desirable to contain your feelings provided that, at some more appropriate time, you are empowered to let fly and emote to your hearts content.

Those of you who subscribe to Psychological Science can check out the July issue for more information, the rest of you will just have to trust The Green Man (an inherently risky thing to do).