Dr Zac Seilder on toxic masculinity and dealing with grief

Dr Zac Seidler is a clinical psychologist, researcher and leading men’s mental health expert.

With seven men across Australia dying by suicide every day- globally, an average of one man every minute- it’s his mission to create a dialogue with men, not about them, in the mental health space.

In this chat with Tom Tilley, Zac opens up about how his father’s suicide shaped his career, explains why we should ditch the label “toxic masculinity”- and why men need more friends.

“I come from a perspective of we need to get guys to do something and the best way to ensure they do nothing is to lecture them, to shame them and to blame them,” Dr Seilder explained.

“That is what the term toxic masculinity does. It comes from a media background, it doesn’t come from scientific literature.

“We’ve never used it before and it is… very clearly, what young men are telling us is when you talk about masculinity. Mow they say, oh, you mean the silent “toxic” in front of masculinity.

And what that does is it goes, everything you do in the name of men and masculinities is harmful. That is not how we see masculinity though. It is… there’s a spectrum.”

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