Well, sort of.

  Not all men are from Mars; some are from Venus.  And not all women are from Venus; some are from Mars.  Otherwise how could they reproduce?   And, of course, some men and women are not from Mars or Venus, but following Dr. John Gray’s simplistic notion of personality type, they must have come from Mercury and Jupiter.  Dr. John Gray must have missed more than a few psychology courses when he attended Columbia Pacific University, a notorious diploma mill in Northern California.  So he should not be referred to as Dr. John Gray, but as John Gray, a high school graduate who sold 40-50 millions books promoting a stupid idea.  I cannot even call his psycho-babble a “theory” because genital/gender based personality type has absolutely no research support whatsoever.  It ranks right up there with the silly ideas of creationism, reincarnation, second hand smoke, and SIV naturally mutating to HIV.

But he did sell 40-50 million books world-wide discussing genital/gender based personality type in sixteen different books advising people about communication, sex, diet and exercise, and raising children.  And he continues to write and sell books, writes a nationally syndicated column presumably reaching 30 million readers, conducts seminars, and has his own franchised string of counseling centers.  It’s scary isn’t it?    

The important question is why is he being so successful?  Any book publisher can easily answer this question.  John Gray has tapped into a segment of the population that strongly believes in genital/gender based personality type, and they buy and read his musings to positively reinforce their pre-existing belief systems.  That is, there are actually men who have personality traits that are consistent with John Gray’s Martians.   The idea that all men have these personality traits is the error in logic, reasoning, and research.   There are actually women who have personality traits that are consistent with John Gray’s Venusians.   The idea that all women have these personality traits is the error in logic, reasoning, and research.  All he had to do was title his book “Some Men are from Mars, and Some Woman are from Venus” and he would have accurately described some personality types.  But then he would have had to explain where all of these other personality types came from and that would require a real education in Psychology…..and he probably would not have sold as many books.

So why question John Gray’s analysis and advice?  He is an internationally recognized relationship and gender expert, isn’t he?  He has a Ph.D. in Psychology and Human Sexuality, doesn’t he?  He makes more sense than all these other licensed Psychologists that received their Doctorates from accredited universities, doesn’t he?  If John Gray had not written his MarsVenus books, a segment of the population might have to modify their beliefs in a manner that is consistent with the extensive psychological research that currently exists.  And we wouldn’t want that, would we….the Republican Party might disappear.