
Introduction
Five decades of dramatic social change and monumental shifts in the traditional family have created a
breed of men who have been conditioned to seek the approval of others.
I call these men Nice Guys.
Nice Guys are concerned about looking good and doing it "right." They are happiest when they are
making others happy. Nice Guys avoid conflict like the plague and will go to great lengths to avoid
upsetting anyone. In general, Nice Guys are peaceful and generous. Nice Guys are especially concerned
about pleasing women and being different from other men. In a nutshell, Nice Guys believe that if they
are good, giving, and caring, they will in return be happy, loved, and fulfilled.
Sound too good to be true?
It is.
Over the last several years, I have encountered countless frustrated and resentful Nice Guys in my
practice as a psychotherapist. These passively pleasing men struggle in vain to experience the happiness
they so desperately crave and believe they deserve. This frustration is due to the fact that Nice Guys
have believed a myth.
This myth is the essence of what I call the Nice Guy Syndrome. The Nice Guy Syndrome represents a
belief that if Nice Guys are "good," they will be loved, get their needs met, and live a problem-free life.
When this life strategy fails to produce the desired results — as it often does — Nice Guys usually just
try harder, doing more of the same. Due to the sense of helplessness and resentment this pattern
inevitably produces, Nice Guys are often anything but nice.
The concept of the Nice Guy Syndrome grew out of my own frustration of trying to do it "right," yet
never getting back what I believed I deserved. I was the typical "sensitive new age guy" — and proud of
it. I believed I was one of the nicest guys you would ever meet. Yet I wasn't happy.
As I began exploring my own Nice Guy behaviors — caretaking, giving to get, fixing, keeping the
peace, avoiding conflict, seeking approval, hiding mistakes — I started noticing numerous men with
similar traits in my counseling practice. It dawned on me that the script guiding my own life was not an