Conservatism, innovation and old age

The onset of old age can be understood as a sequence of losses--of relationships, physical abilities, functions--which must be grieved. It represents a kind of psycho-social transition, whose generic characteristic is a breakdown in the structure of meaning by which we interpret events and which forces us to re-interpret that structure before we can assimilate the events that have provoked the breakdown. The better we understand such transitions as retirement, and loss of health, the more likely we can find ways to create the social and psychological conditions in which to work through the grief. The attitudes of American society towards old age tend to make these transitions harder than they need be.