March 1999
Reviving Ophelia changed the way we think about adolescent girls. Now its author, renowned psychiatrist Mary Pipher, has journeyed to the emotional terrain of our elders. She has returned to explain -- to baby boomers and everyone else -- what our elders are going through, why we have trouble dealing with them, and how to set about making old age a more pleasant time, for them and, eventually, for ourselves.
New York Times
Mary Pipher views aging through the lens of the anthropologist. She observes that to grow old for many people in today's fragmented, age-phobic, age-segregated America is to inhabit a foreign country, isolated and misunderstood.
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Mary Pipher, Ph.D., is a clinical psychologist and author of The Shelter of Each Other: Rebuilding our Families and Another Country: Navigating the Emotional Terrain of our Elders. Awarded the American Psychological Association's Presidential Citation, Pipher speaks across the country to families, mental health professionals, and educators, and has appeared on Today, 20/20, The Charlie Rose Show, PBS Newshour with Jim Lehrer, and National Public Radio's Fresh Air.More About the AuthorCustomer ReviewsReader Rating: Ratings: 3Reviews: 3See All ReviewsAnother Country: Navigating the Emotional Terrain of Our Eldersby Anonymous
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May 13, 2001:
I can't believe this is the first review of this wonderful book. It really does give a roadmap to adult children of aging parents about how to deal with the many difficult issues this life stage poses and what to expect. Those of us in our 40s and 50s (or, possibly, younger or older) who find our parents growing old and infirm before our eyes need the perspecive Pipher provides, citing many examples from her own practice, to get practical advice and to know that we are not alone.Another Country: Navigating the Emotional Terrain of Our Eldersby Anonymous
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April 23, 2000:
I read this book wanting to have a better understanding of what my parents might be feeling as they enter old age. Their health is starting to decline, yet they want desperately to maintain their independence. It seems irrational. Why not enjoy prepared meals and cleaning services of assisted living when you can afford it? Pipher?s book answered my questions. It isn?t fun to reach what she calls old-old age when health declines and one needs assistance with some of the daily routines. Yet our culture makes it difficult to ask for help and even harder to accept it. Pipher shows how the baby-boomer generation and their depression-survivor parents differ, and the 'great divide' is psychology not technology as one might expect. She addresses the realities of care for our elders and encourages family communication and geographical closeness. In the last chapters, she seems unrealistically optimistic about families caring for each other and a bit preachy on that idea. But she does give much useful information on understanding our elders and some good advice on communicating with them.
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