You offer a chapter on how fathers and sons reverse roles in later life. What are some of the key ways in which men change emotionally as they age and how does that affect the father/son relationship?
Men in their late-forties, fifties, and sixties and beyond are coming to terms with their own physical and emotional limitations as well as the death of their heroic aspirations. During middle age and later life, men experience a developmental need to reclaim those less action-oriented, receptive parts of themselves that were necessarily constricted in order for them to achieve sufficient mastery in the world and accommodate to society’s ideal of manhood. They need to reconfigure the boyish, ever-youthful parts of themselves so that they can successfully face the aging process in their years ahead. As a result of the biological and psychological changes occurring during this time, many men no longer are driven to prove their manhood but instead are freer to more fully be themselves. In the second half of life, most men naturally begin to turn inward as their sense of certainty is being dismantled. Rather than pursuing specific goals and trying to master his environment—important goals
