A Knight in Shining Armor: Understanding Men's Romantic Illusions

Thousands of men, in Hornstein's diagnosis, suffer from ``man-servant syndrome,'' harboring a fantasy that women possess a magical bounty to make them feel like ``princes.'' These would-be Prince Charmings forever chase after ``male competency cluster'' traits, striving to live up to the image of the strong, self-reliant ``ultra-man'' and sinking into rage, blame and disillusionment when women withhold the bliss-giving bounty they are presumed to possess. Man-servants also participate in society's ``work genderification'' that deems women ill-suited for the world of work. Director of Columbia University Teachers College's psychology division, Hornstein draws on interviews with 150 men and women in this predictable exercise in pop psychology. His analysis of this ``syndrome'' and of passive, dependent women's collusion in it is plausible but hardly new or surprising. (Sept.)