Death as a Factor in Understanding Modern Attitudes Toward the Aging

This article challenges the adequacy of the eight primary theories that are used to analyze and account for what happens to persons in contemporary U.S. culture during the aging process. The theory presented in this article, Symbolization-Avoidance Theory, draws its clue from contrasting attitudes toward death during several periods in this country's history. The author suggests that there is a direct correlation between the modern avoidanceldenial of death through "removal," and the image of elders as symbolic reminders of death, resulting in their rejection/departmentalization through "invisibility." This phenomenon, destined to become a growlng dynamic in the future, is the dynamic known as "ageism."