A Guide to humanistic studies in aging: what does it mean to grow old?

TLDR

The volume examines aging’s moral, spiritual, and cultural dimensions through interdisciplinary scholarship, highlighting its long‑standing scholarly interest and the impact of contemporary portrayals on individuals and society, and concludes with a reflective case study of a surgeon’s recovery. The guide aims to integrate humanities and health professions to offer an intellectual rationale, historical context, and comprehensive overview of humanistic gerontology in the U.S. and Europe. The book is organized into three sections that apply history, literature, religion, philosophy, semiotics, cultural analysis, and ideological critique to examine aging’s conceptual, existential, and social dimensions, including creativity, health, moral obligations, friendships, home, ageism, and globalization.

Abstract

This volume explores the moral, spiritual, and cultural terrain of aging through interdisciplinary scholarship and clinically based research. Aging has long been of interest to scholars and practitioners in a vast array of academic fields and professions. Thomas R. Cole, Ruth E. Ray, and Robert Kastenbaum have brought together leaders from a variety of academic realms to explore how aging is depicted in the modern era and the effect of these portrayals on individuals and society. The first section views aging and age through the lenses of four disciplines: history, literature, religion, and philosophy. It probes the idea and effect of age in different places and times in history; discusses the concept as put forth in novels, memoirs, and literary studies and criticism; and raises important existential and spiritual questions about the meaning of growing old. The chapters in the second section demonstrate how interdisciplinary humanities can be applied to the study of aging through such thoughtful queries as: How do creativity and health relate in age? What does old mean in an era of high-tech medicine, and what is our moral obligation to care for elderly persons? Why are friendships of special importance to older people? Section three uses semiotics, cultural analysis, and ideological critiques to identify key social issues related to aging, including the concept of home, ageism and discrimination, and our understanding of aging in the era of globalization. The text closes with Robert Kastenbaum's poignant reflection on his own considerations of meaning and mortality as he journeyed back to health following heart surgery. This comprehensive guide works at the nexus of the humanities and health professions to provide the intellectual rationale, history, and a substantive overview of humanistic gerontology as it has emerged in the United States and Europe.