Author Archives: Bob Ritzema

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About Bob Ritzema

I am a fourth-generation American of Dutch ancestry and am trained as a clinical psychologist. In 2012, I retired from Methodist University in North Carolina to return to Michigan to help family, and, in 2023, I started again with a move to Milwaukee to be near my children. I maintain a part-time therapy practice. I can be reached at bobritzema@hotmail.com.

Doing and Being in Elderhood

Posted on March 31, 2015 by Bob Ritzema

In his book What are Old People For?, Dr. Bill Thomas says: “Simple observation has led me to see life as a dynamic and unfolding interplay between the states of doing and being.” According to Thomas, doing occurs “when we … Continue reading →

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Success, Then Poverty: William McPherson’s Story

Posted on March 22, 2015 by Bob Ritzema

I recently wrote a post that alluded to the struggles of the working poor after they reach retirement age. It’s not just the working poor that spend their last years mired in financial difficulties, though. Consider the lot of a Pulitzer-winning … Continue reading →

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Retiring Among the Like-Minded…Or Not

Posted on March 7, 2015 by Bob Ritzema

Ever since switching from full time to part time employment I’ve been thinking about what constitutes a good retirement. I’m sometimes surprised by who has something to say about the issue. Jack Dickey, a 24-year-old writing for Time magazine, put … Continue reading →

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Retirement: “Do we have to do what we want to again today?”

Posted on February 24, 2015 by Bob Ritzema

I’ve recently been reading Learn to Grow Old, published in 1971 by Swiss physician Paul Tournier. Dr. Tournier practiced what he called the medicine of the person, an integrative approach to care of body, mind, and spirit that now would … Continue reading →

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Ash Wednesday: You’re Gonna Die

Posted on February 16, 2015 by Bob Ritzema

I’m writing this a few days before Ash Wednesday, the beginning of Lent in the Christian calendar. Most Ash Wednesday services give participants the opportunity to have ashes–a symbol of mortality–rubbed on their foreheads. The presiding minister says something like “Remember … Continue reading →

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Retirement Leisure and the Protestant Work Ethic

Posted on February 5, 2015 by Bob Ritzema

I’ve written before about retirement and the leisure ideal. I described how in the middle of the 20th century government and business in the U.S. wished to get older workers out of the workforce to make way for younger workers. … Continue reading →

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The Down Side of Generativity

Posted on January 20, 2015 by Bob Ritzema

Last October, the New Yorker published an article about the biggest hedge fund scandal of all time. The scandal involved insider trading by billionaire hedge fund manager Steven A. Cohen and his fund, S.A.C. Capital Advisors. In 2008, a clinical … Continue reading →

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Generativity

Posted on January 10, 2015 by Bob Ritzema

Generativity is a quality that psychoanalyst Erik Erikson associated with a healthy middle adulthood. Erikson thought that around midlife it is common to develop an interest in doing something that will outlast oneself. Earlier in adulthood, most of us focus on … Continue reading →

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Adaptation at the Movies

Posted on January 3, 2015 by Bob Ritzema

I recently wrote a reflection on Birdman, the Michael Keaton film about an actor who played a superhero in the ’90s and now is trying to resurrect his career by staging a play. I described the “Birdman” voice that only Riggan, … Continue reading →

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Dad, Descartes, and Dementia

Posted on December 27, 2014 by Bob Ritzema

My dad’s dementia worsened over the course of several years. It was quite disturbing to see his memory loss, confusion, difficulty expressing himself, and inability to perform even simple tasks. The changes in him raised questions for me, questions which I … Continue reading →

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