{"title":"Can We Flourish Amid Our Losses? Transformative Openings in Old Age.","authors":"Larry R Churchill","doi":"10.1353/pbm.2024.a936220","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>This essay is an exploration of the transformative possibilities open to us through aging. Transformative openings are described using psychologist Abraham Maslow's notion of \"peak-experiences,\" which are both normal and common for humans. Popular cultural stereotypes of aging are examined and discarded. The experiences of loss, especially diminishments of mobility, dexterity, and mental acuity, are characteristic of aging. It is argued that these losses present novel transformative openings, especially when death and aging are viewed in dialectical relationship.</p>","PeriodicalId":54627,"journal":{"name":"Perspectives in Biology and Medicine","volume":"67 3","pages":"437-448"},"PeriodicalIF":0.7000,"publicationDate":"2024-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Perspectives in Biology and Medicine","FirstCategoryId":"3","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1353/pbm.2024.a936220","RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q2","JCRName":"HISTORY & PHILOSOPHY OF SCIENCE","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
This essay is an exploration of the transformative possibilities open to us through aging. Transformative openings are described using psychologist Abraham Maslow's notion of "peak-experiences," which are both normal and common for humans. Popular cultural stereotypes of aging are examined and discarded. The experiences of loss, especially diminishments of mobility, dexterity, and mental acuity, are characteristic of aging. It is argued that these losses present novel transformative openings, especially when death and aging are viewed in dialectical relationship.
期刊介绍:
Perspectives in Biology and Medicine, an interdisciplinary scholarly journal whose readers include biologists, physicians, students, and scholars, publishes essays that place important biological or medical subjects in broader scientific, social, or humanistic contexts. These essays span a wide range of subjects, from biomedical topics such as neurobiology, genetics, and evolution, to topics in ethics, history, philosophy, and medical education and practice. The editors encourage an informal style that has literary merit and that preserves the warmth, excitement, and color of the biological and medical sciences.