Category Archives: Psyche

Stress Management in Older Adulthood

Posted on April 13, 2015 by Bob Ritzema

You’re not stress-free, are you? Neither am I. And we won’t rid ourselves of stress, either. If you’re a middle-aged adult working long hours, raising kids, negotiating relationship problems, cooking, cleaning, and trying to keep your environment from falling into … Continue reading →

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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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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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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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Midlife Grief, Late Life Happiness

Posted on November 26, 2014 by Bob Ritzema

I wrote earlier in my other blog about the cover story of the December, 2014 Atlantic on happiness in midlife. Jonathan Rauch, the author of the article, describes the “happiness U-curve,” a graph of data from numerous studies showing a … Continue reading →

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Adaptation

Posted on November 13, 2014 by Bob Ritzema

In Spike Jonze’s movie Adaptation, screenwriter Charlie Kaufman (Nicholas Cage) struggles in his effort to adapt The Orchid Thief into a film. Part of the problem is the book—it’s lacking a usable storyline. But much of the problem is with Charlie himself, … Continue reading →

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Do We Become More Virtuous As We Age?

Posted on October 4, 2014 by Bob Ritzema

Do we become more virtuous as we age? Certainly there are saints among us who display more of the fruit of the Spirit with every passing year. Then there is someone like Fred Phelps, founder of Westboro Baptist Church, who … Continue reading →

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