ABSTRACT

There are many ways of understanding and treating men who suffer from the consequences of childhood sexual abuse. This chapter focused on men's inner worlds and bridges neuroscience and Internal Family Systems (IFS). It discusses some key brain circuitries that undergird human experiences and motivations, and then some fundamental cycles of suffering, healing, and happiness. The chapter summarizes some key concepts of IFS and introduces the metaphor of the "parts" described by IFS as apps running on the brains. It explains how masculine gender socialization shapes those apps. The chapter describes how accessing universal capacities for love and wisdom can transform inner families of parts and the key circuitries on which they run, to bring healing and happiness to traumatized people and specifically men with histories of child sexual abuse. The extreme parts, the polarized inner worlds, and the cycles of suffering of sexually abused males – all are deeply shaped by the cultural "software" of masculine gender socialization.