Through two books published a few years apart, Sylvie Tenenbaum offers a unique X-ray of the tensions that run through gender relations, the private sphere and the public space today. Not all of them are angels. et The masculinist peril They do not belong to the same register, but they engage in a profound dialogue. Together, they draw a coherent map of contemporary unease, which is psychological, relational, and political.
A psychotherapist by training and an author for over three decades, Sylvie Tenenbaum occupies a unique place in the French publishing landscape, at the crossroads of clinical practice, social essays, and critical personal development. Long known for her works on emotional dependency, toxic relationships, and self-reconstruction, she has progressively broadened her analytical scope to include collective dynamics and contemporary ideological shifts.
Her writing, deliberately accessible yet solidly structured, is grounded in practical experience informed by therapeutic support, giving her an embodied understanding of individual suffering as well as a clear-sightedness regarding its political exploitation. Through her recent works, Tenenbaum no longer simply accompanies personal journeys: she now positions herself as an intellectual watchdog, attentive to the cultural, digital, and ideological excesses that could undermine the democratic and relational balance of our societies.
Where many essays choose a single angle, Tenenbaum works on two complementary levels: the micro scale of human relations and the macro scale of emerging ideologies. This dual focus constitutes the originality and power of his recent work.
Not all of them are angels. (Sylvie Tenenbaum, Leduc.s, 2022)
When relational psychology questions a cultural taboo
This first volume falls within the field of personal development informed by a clinical perspective. Sylvie Tenenbaum begins with a simple yet unsettling observation: Western culture maintains a largely idealized representation of the feminine figure, associated with kindness, gentleness, and care. This implicit mythology creates a blind spot: it makes it more difficult to recognize certain forms of psychological violence when perpetrated by women, particularly in family, marital, friendship, or professional settings.
The book explores a typology of toxic behaviors—emotional manipulation, emotional blackmail, guilt-tripping, psychological control, and relational narcissism—showing how they often take root insidiously. The book's main strength lies in its educational approach: Tenenbaum offers accessible frameworks that allow readers to name their feelings, understand the underlying mechanisms, and identify their own vulnerabilities. She emphasizes that recognizing these behaviors is not about putting women on trial, but rather about a necessary step toward self-awareness to restore fairer relationships.
This deliberately contrarian stance gives the book a sometimes polemical tone. Its theoretical limitation lies in its grounding in individual clinical practice: structural power relations and sociological data are relatively underutilized, which can give the impression of a more descriptive than truly sociopolitical approach. Nevertheless, the work has opened up a new space for dialogue, useful for many readers confronted with poorly identified toxic relationships.
The masculinist peril (Sylvie Tenenbaum, HarperCollins, 2026)
Autopsy of an emerging ideology in the digital age
With this second book, Tenenbaum makes a radical shift in scale. She leaves the intimate sphere to analyze a structuring collective phenomenon: the rise of masculinism as a pervasive political ideology. Where Not all of them are angels. was interested in behaviors, The masculinist peril focuses on the narratives, discourses, influence strategies, and digital networks that transform male frustrations into an organized counterculture.
The author dismantles the narrative codes of these movements: male victimhood, pseudo-scientific rhetoric, promises of "reclaiming" masculinity, and the marketing of power and success. She highlights how these discourses spread through coaching, personal development, podcasts, and motivational videos, and how they gradually shift toward a political project that challenges women's rights and civic equality.
One of the book's major contributions is its analysis of the role of digital platforms as ideological accelerators. The author shows how algorithms promote divisive, emotional, and simplistic content, contributing to the normalization of narratives that would have been perceived as extremist just a few years ago. The masculinist peril It is thus distinguished by its societal scope and by its explicit inclusion in the reflection on contemporary authoritarian excesses.
Its limitation, sometimes noted, lies in the forcefulness of its tone: committed and alarmist, it leaves little room for a detached reading of individual trajectories. But this stance is also the strength of the work: it aims to be a warning text, assuming a role as a democratic watchdog rather than one of academic neutrality.
Taken together, these two books form a coherent work: Not all of them are angels. sheds light on the intimate side of relationship dysfunction, while The masculinist peril This reveals the potential for large-scale ideological exploitation. Sylvie Tenenbaum thus constructs a cross-cutting understanding of contemporary unease, where psychology meets politics, and where private tensions become public issues.
This diptych helps us understand how individual suffering can become political fuel, how simplified narratives about gender fuel power dynamics, and how digital technology acts as an accelerator of these transformations.
Sylvie Tenenbaum's writing is committed, direct, and deliberately unsettling. She doesn't seek to please, but to raise awareness. Her books don't offer academic neutrality, but rather a structured and well-documented analysis of contemporary fractures. This deliberate stance gives her works a particular value in the current publishing landscape, where few essays manage to articulate clinical psychology and political analysis.
Through these two works, Sylvie Tenenbaum constructs a work of vigilance. Not all of them are angels. It examines our relational blind spots. The masculinist peril It sheds light on a silent ideological shift. Together, they offer a powerful lens through which to understand the tensions that are reshaping gender relations, the private sphere, and public debate today.
A dual reading is essential for anyone wishing to understand the new fault lines of the 21st century.
Ema Lynnx
