Category Archives: Psyche

What It Is Like For Dad To Be Gone

Posted on June 5, 2014 by Bob Ritzema

Dad went into the rest home yesterday. He has dementia (apparently of the lewy body variety) and has been deteriorating for years. For the last two years, he could not be left alone and needed assistance with much of daily … Continue reading →

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Caring and the Aging Self

Posted on May 15, 2014 by Bob Ritzema

As I’ve written recently, we constantly revise our sense of who we are under the tutelage of life events. I am different today than I was yesterday, though only subtly so, and will be different tomorrow than I am today. … Continue reading →

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Are Your Memories High- or Low-Resolution?

Posted on May 7, 2014 by Bob Ritzema

Here’s a comment that most of us would attribute to an older adult: “I can’t remember what I did yesterday, but I can remember the name of my 4th grade teacher.” We seniors are known for being better at retaining long-term … Continue reading →

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News Flash! Old People Are Invisible!

Posted on April 29, 2014 by Bob Ritzema

In his excellent article in the New Yorker about the rigors and rewards of growing old, Roger Angell, who at age 93 certainly knows something about the subject, describes what it’s like to be treated as if he is irrelevant: … Continue reading →

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How Older Adults React to Adversity

Posted on April 23, 2014 by Bob Ritzema

According to Stoic philosopher Epictetus, “It’s not what happens to you, but how you react to it that matters.” Older adults may have an edge in reacting to adversity in a sanguine manner. At least that’s what a recent study … Continue reading →

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Becoming A Practicing Psychologist: How I Now View It

Posted on March 25, 2014 by Bob Ritzema

This post is a follow-up to one I wrote earlier about a transition during my early 30s—leaving my budding career as a college professor to work as a clinical psychologist in the Michigan prison system. I thought of this as a midlife transition. … Continue reading →

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Unfinished Business

Posted on February 27, 2014 by Bob Ritzema

I recently wrote a brief article on “unfinished business” for the website at Psychology Associates of Grand Rapids, where I work part-time as a therapist.  According to psychologist Fritz Perls, our unfinished business consists of all the emotionally significant events … Continue reading →

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My Life Story: Becoming a Practicing Psychologist

Posted on February 13, 2014 by Bob Ritzema

In a previous post about changes in midlife, I described several significant changes that I underwent. The first of these was that, at age 32, I decided that I wasn’t satisfied teaching what I hadn’t practiced, and sought part-time (later full-time) clinical … Continue reading →

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Why Older Adults Are Lousy Multitaskers

Posted on February 5, 2014 by Bob Ritzema

I’m a multitasker. I started today by simultaneously eating breakfast, watching CBS This Morning, and reading an article on Pope Francis. Later, I jumped from computer to tablet to phone. Unfortunately, whenever I multitask I miss out on important information, … Continue reading →

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My Midlife Crisis? Which One?

Posted on January 29, 2014 by Bob Ritzema

I wrote earlier about the First, Second, and Third Spiritual Journeys of life. The Second Journey—having to do with some sort of reorientation during middle adulthood—encompasses the “mid-life crisis” of common parlance. This post will describe the concept of the mid-life … Continue reading →

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