Enjoy Old Age: A Program of Self-Management (Hardcover)

by B. F. Skinner (Author), M. E. Vaughan (Author)

Product Details

• Hardcover: 157 pages
• Publisher: W W Norton & Co Inc; 1st edition (September 1983)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0393018059
• ISBN-13: 978-0393018059
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.7 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,408,562 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Surprisingly Appealing Practical Tips for Living as One Ages from The Great Behaviorist, December 16, 2005

By	Dennis During (Mount Vernon, NY USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This is a surprisingly practical guide to living from the great behavioral psychologist, B.F. Skinner and a young co-author. A lifetime of careful observation of the behavior of humans and other animals gave him a great deal of insight into the practical difficulties of dealing with whatever subset of the infirmities of age may beset one. He relentlessly applies the behaviorist "ABC" [antecedent (setting) / behavior (action) / consequences] model to many challenges of daily life and comes up with refreshingly honest, direct, even bold, solutions. Many libraries probably have a copy on their shelves. But, once you read it, you may want to have one on your nightstand, next to your pen-light, notepad, and pencil. You may want to give it to some of your more whiney aging friends and acquaintances, too.

5.0 out of 5 stars A great, unsentimental, yet comforting, self-help book about aging, November 2, 2008

By	Rose Oatley (Miami, Florida United States) - See all my reviews

This slim volume is one of the best self-help books I've read. Instead of being filled with cheer-up nostrums, it offers a pragmatic, face-reality view of old age, as a time of diminished capabilities that can be worked around. It is permeated with Skinner's behavioralism, though not labelled as such until an appendix that maps the text's plain-spoken simplicity to technical terms of behaviorism. Its central precept is both devoid of sentimentality yet oddly comforting, for it puts the power to mitigate old-age's drawbacks within the individual's power: "In all these examples [of coping with, defeating, or succumbing to, the drags and diminutions of old age], what people feel is the by-product of what they do and of the circumstances under which they do it. Instead of trying to feel differently by some act of will, you do better to change what is felt by changing the circumstances responsible for it."