Book Review: Reclaimed Powers: Men and Women in Later Life

I’m excited! I’ve finally gotten into a book written by one of the smartest students of adult behavior you’ve probably never heard of. He’s David Gutmann, professor of psychiatry at Northwestern University. The book is Reclaimed Powers: Men and Women in Later Life.

Probably one of the reasons you've likely never heard of him is that he is something of a curmudgeon. He’s a gerontologist with a cynical view of the field. He believes too many people in the field have poor grounding in the developmental elements of life in its second half. Obviously, not too many people in gerontology feel good about someone in their field denigrating it from time to time. So, he's not particularly well-known.

I’ve read short pieces and even quoted Gutmann from those writings, but until now I had never read a book-length work by him. Now, deep into Reclaimed Powers, I realize that I should have read it years ago. I ‘m now recommending it to everyone over 40, for personal as well as for professional purposes in a rapidly aging society. It’s not an easy read for people used to the eighth to tenth grade reading levels of most best sellers. But trust me, most of you will probably find that slogging through Reclaimed Powers is worth the effort if you really like learning new things about human behavior.

Behavior is everyone’s favorite subject. This starts with their own behavior. Reflect for a moment: How much of your daily thinking and conversations with others concerns behavior – either yours or that of others? How much of your time and attention at work is devoted to the behavior of colleagues and others, from vendors to customers? How about in your off-work conversations?

How often do you think and talk about the behavior of coaches, players and umpires – and even crowds in the stands – if you are a sports lover? Not to be sexist in the least, if you are a woman, how much of your thinking and conversations others concerns the behavior of friends, spouses and others in your life?

Even when we watch the news, behavior is at the center of our attention. Isn’t that is what political campaigns are all about?

Given that behavior is the primary cognitive focus for most of us (we even get into reflections on behavior in the books we read, TV shows we watch and movies we see) why aren’t we smarter about behavior? Why do we devote so little time (most of us) to learning more about behavior from the annals of behavioral science?

And why do behavioral studies play such a small role in marketing – of all disciplines? Why is it that a person can get an MBA in marketing without taking a single course in behavior?

Marketers have long relied on consumers telling them things they want to know about consumer behavior. But everyone in marketing really knows that consumers generally have no better understanding of their own behavior than they have of other people’s behavior. This is why at long last companies like Procter and Gamble are depending less and less on consumers’ self reports.

One might think that by the time a person reached the second half of life at age 40, that they would have enough self- understanding that they could provide deep insights into their behavior. But David Gutmann found differently by using projective techniques rather than surveys, interviews and focus groups. What Gutmann has learned is the true story of people’s behavior in the second half of life stands to give every marketer who cares to listen key insights into the older consumers they direct their marketing towards. I’ll talk about that more in the next post.

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Comments

[joared]

Gutman's book sounds interesting, especially specifically how his views differ from so many other gerentologists.

Think the idea that we spend more time than we realize conversing about behavior -- our own, others -- both men and women, is quite true. Also, we may not know ourselves as well as we think we do. The number of years we've lived is no guarantee we'll have that insight.

[David]

Joared,

You are so right when you say, "we may not know ourselves as well as we think we do." Of course, we see this failing in others much easier than we see it in ourselves. But in Jungian terms, getting to know our real selves better is our primary developmental task in the second half of life when we (theoretically) do not have our time totally consummed by family and career tasks.

Thanks for your comments.

DBW

[Thomas F. McGarry]

Most women, in my expierience, are conviced that women are better observers of behavior and character than men. Is there any research on this or on any other women vs. men ability in any interpersonal aspect of behavior?
TMcG

[David]

Thomas,

I have no doubt about such research existing but have not personally looked into it. In my experience, women tend to be better at intuiting negative aspects of others when they first meet them while men tend to be better at intuiting positive aspects. There certainly must be research that explores this. Try finding it on Google.

Thanks for writing.

DBW