Anyone who has even the slightest interest in media popular culture, particularly, as it relates to the 1960s, is likely to be aware of the TV program Mad Men that aired from 2007-2015. The main character of the critically acclaimed series was a conflicted, tormented, womanizing, chain smoking, alcoholic, upper middle-class, White Anglo-Saxon Protestant advertising executive named Don Draper. He was phenomenally successful working at Sterling Cooper, the conservative-leaning company.
Draper was brash, bold, intense, secure, insecure, arrogant, ambitious, insightful, ruthless, aloof, temperamental, romantic, savvy and unpredictable. It goes without saying, he was a dynamic, complex human being. Many individuals, both friends and foes, were often in awe when in his presence. He was a formidable force to be reckoned with.
Talk, dark and indisputably handsome, Draper was the type of man who other men simultaneously admired and feared. He was the man who many women wanted to go to bed with and frequently did. He was the embodiment of the Alpha male that made other men want to be like him, be his buddy and often provoked jealously and resentment among those guys who were unable to measure up to his larger-than-life presence.
Yes, Draper seemed to have it all. Money, looks, significant power, a bewitchingly beautiful wife, three children, a beautiful home in suburban Ossining, New York and all the outward trappings of success. He was a living embodiment of the American dream. He had arrived.
Despite his material and enviable career success, Don, like many of his mid-20th century contemporaries and many men today, more than a half a century later, was hampered by a common theme that is prevalent in the lives of many men — a lack of genuine friendships. The old saying that “the more things change, the more they stay the same” rings true in regards to this particular issue.
There have been a number of theories/reasons from experts as to why so many men have difficulty establishing and maintaining valuable, close, relationships with other men.
Reasons aside, many individuals with the XX chromosome have a real deficit in their level of camaraderie with other men. The undeniable conclusion from many psychologists, psychotherapists, mental health experts as well as testimony from a number of men themselves is that too many men have too few, if any, real male friends. There has been a plethora of studies providing evidence that men who are largely friendless are living in an unhealthy situation, often resort to alcohol, engage in drug use, suffer from depression, and should reexamine their current predicament.
