Aging doesn’t happen in a vacuum

The way a society interprets aging can stimulate or impair our development as we grow older

Professor Andreas Kruse, Director of the Institute of Gerontology at the Heidelberg University, Germany

Bangkok entered into my life with a song. In the middle of the eighties, “One night in Bangkok” was playing on every station. It was morning though the first time I landed in Thailand some twenty years ago, when the mammoth international airport was still in construction on “cobra swamp,” a land that made no mystery of its quality. The automatic doors of the outworn Don Muaeng airport opened in toward me and I found myself immersed in the sweet smell of jasmine rice. The sensation was completely unexpected, but also incongruous given the vastness of the city. In the years to come, Bangkok would always welcome me with its warm embrace and surprising sights. Like the guy riding an elephant along a road in a tropical night, a red reflector glittering from the elephant’s tail. 

I feel at home in Bangkok. I love the mix of skyscrapers and bumpy sidewalks, temples and shops, motorbike taxis and food vendors with their metallic tables and plastic stools lined up under a city bridge. In this expansive reality of twenty million people, I have my favorite spot. It’s the footbridge facing the Erawan Shrine at Rachaprasong intersection, one of the busiest corners of the city. It’s a tiny shrine built - so the story goes - to eliminate the bad karma of the foundation of a nearby hotel that was believed to have been laid on the wrong date. The shrine is sandwiched between five-lane streets facing the suspended footbridge on top of which two tracks of monorail trains cross the sky.

Because Erawan is considered a “very powerful” sanctuary, it’s always packed with worshippers. After sunset the colors become more vivid. The neon lights reflect on the tiny mirror tiles that cover the altar and enlighten piles of fresh marigold garlands that lay across the metal fence surrounding the golden statue of Phra Phrom, the Thai representation of Brahma, with its four faces. Each one symbolizes a different aspect of life - career and life, relationship and family, wisdom and health, and wealth. The smoke of incense sticks wraps kneeling worshippers immersed in a silent prayer with their eyes closed, while in the background, in a green-roofed verandah, some female dancers with golden crowns swirl like the figurines of a mechanical toy. It’s a microcosm, a bubble of quiet encapsulated in the frenzy and I never get tired of looking at this multilayered game of perspectives from my suspended point of view. 

I feel a similar fascination for Erik Erikson’s theory of personality. Contrary to other notable names in the Olympus of psychology, the German-American psychologist wasn’t contented with observing the early formative years but explored - thanks to his interest in social and cultural studies - the entire arc of existence. From his perspective, our lives are the result of an evolution that moves from a polarity of opposite inclinations that mark eight stages of life, from birth to death. Basically, we have a chance to develop one specific virtue in each and every stage that will be useful to face and master the next level of life’s challenge. It is in the dialog with society that the “magic” of our personal evolution can happen. So, instead of looking at our past only, Erikson invites us to stop navel-gazing to embrace the challenge with the awareness that, until the last breath, we’re never done. We’re always a work-in-progress. 

The tensions in the first six stages of our lives are “designed” to help us develop the virtues of hope, will, purpose, competence, fidelity and love. Past the age of forty, the last two phases of adulthood aim to promote care and wisdom. Care is the result of a dialogue between generativity, as a contribution to society and stagnation, as a regretful view on one’s life. In the last chapter of life, wisdom emerges by finding a balance between ego integrity, the acceptance of life in its fullness, and despair, the guilt conscience about the past. Tolstoy described this trade-off in his novel The Death of Ivan Ilyich, in which a high-court judge on his death bed asks: “What if my whole life has been wrong?” 

From Heidelberg University, Professor Andreas Kruse, Director of the Institute of Gerontology and co-author of the paper “Generativity as a Route to Active Aging” took the time to discuss the interplay between aging and society in the light of Erikson’s theory. What emerges is not just a broader perspective on the aging process, but the many missed opportunities for growth, because our collective view can promote or prevent the fulfillment of our psychological wiring.

Can you briefly tell us where your interest in aging comes from?

The interest in topics of age had been due to my dissertation in which I examined stroke patients and their relatives in detail. And I was able to observe a high level of emotional and cognitive competence in coping with the illness in many patients and relatives. This observation showed me that a distinction has to be made between physical and mental processes. In relation to the latter, many elderly people have high resources. In a way, here I have already witnessed resilience in old age; this topic occupied me particularly intensively later.

What is generativity and what role does it play in our lives?

Generativity can be defined as a motive to enrich subsequent generations with one’s own knowledge of life, with one’s own abilities and skills, and to take responsibility for their development. Your own life is always in the service of the following generations, one can also say: in the service of society, the world, and creation. For me, this motif is not only important in terms of scientific interest, but also in terms of my personal lifestyle - for example when it comes to my children and grandchildren.

Forgive the hyper-simplification. From Erikson’s perspective life appears like a game of clues. Resolve a conflict and you get a key to access a higher level of awareness. Is this an invitation to embrace - rather than refuse - the crises in our lives?

The idea that crises and conflicts can potentially have a beneficial effect on development is widely represented in both psychology and philosophy. And I think that this idea expresses a lot of truth. Erikson expressly names the framework conditions that must be met to master conflicts and crises. These include motivating and enabling development conditions. In addition, reliable institutions and a “vital” democracy (with its respect to fundamental human rights) are important. These aspects also indicate the importance of society for successful development. Additionally, we have to consider that there are crises and conflicts that are so stressful that the individual collapses under them. Just think of trauma that can lead to such breakdowns, but not necessarily.

With the concept of “psycho-social development,” Erikson introduced our relationship with our society into the equation. Notably, it is a two-way road. How does this play out into our aging process?

The influences of society and culture on our aging process cannot be valued highly enough. Education, participation, financial security, prevention and therapy are important framework conditions for development. In addition, there are collective representations of aging and old age: How does a society interpret aging and old age, to what extent are these interpretations conducive to development (because they are stimulating) or else impairing development (because they tend to be discouraging)? You are right: we must not underestimate the social and cultural elements in Erikson’s theory. They are just as significant as the soul, the physical, the biological components.

While Erik Erikson began his career studying children, his theory embraces the whole life span. The word “development” suggests that we have a goal to reach. What is your take?

I am generally reluctant to define the final development goals in a specific way. However, the idea that a general goal is to become a “mature” personality contains much truth. Here “Maturity” means to develop mental and cognitive qualities, to achieve a high moral level, to accept one’s own life course with its ups and downs, finally to understand one’s own vulnerability and finiteness as part of existence (conditio humana), and the fact that one’s life should also serve other people. Erikson expressly mentions such development goals. In my opinion, these do not go too far; rather, they describe what we also observe in our own research.

I read that generativity is a predictor of optimism and satisfaction with life. What are the obstacles to its development?

I see an obstacle in the fact that our society and culture sometimes deny old people the ability and willingness to live responsibly, that is, to put their own life in the service of future generations. In my opinion, intergenerational offers are particularly important in order to break down such obstacles. In addition, the various societies must deal more intensively with the nature of old age, including the resources of old age, in order to arrive at a more differentiated representation of old age. I see a further possible obstacle in the lack of developmental steps in the life course: if the individual has essentially only concentrated on self-responsibility, but not on co-responsibility, if he or she has not had or used any opportunities to develop a co-responsible lifestyle, the result will be only low degrees of generativity.

We are used to the images of young designers and creatives, but it feels that creativity plays a part in generativity. Can you tell us more?

The ability to understand the ideas, values and needs of young people is in itself a precondition of creativity. In addition, the ability to develop solutions of problems together with young people - and not over their heads – is crucial for creativity. After all, we observe a significant form of creativity in the world of labour: continuously developing one’s own knowledge, abilities and skills, but at the same time applying them to solving new problem situations in close cooperation with young people. This form of a close cooperation between young and old can be the fundament of a “success story”.

You defined the usage of older people’s life competence as a “societal imperative.” Still, many workers or retired workers face age-based discrimination. How important is a different perspective on aging to promote this process?

In view of the fact that many older employees have knowledge, skills and abilities that our working world cannot do without - just think of the overview of work processes, the ability to coordinate or integrate different work processes, and finally, a high level of loyalty to their company - the increased use of the potential of old age appears to be an important task (“imperative”) for the world of labour.
It is also crucial that older employees have the opportunity to continue their education to the same extent as younger employees can. In addition, intergenerational projects in the world of labour are an important motivator for older people - when young people approach them with tolerance, openness and curiosity. This tolerance, openness and curiosity should, of course also be shown by older people. Intergenerational training can provide important impulses here.

In your paper “Generativity as a route to Active Aging,” you wrote: “Identity in old age cannot be understood without considering social representations of old age and aging, societal expectations and availability of social roles, and opportunity structures.” Does this impair the “access” to generativity?

As already pointed out, the way in which aging and old age are shaped - even on an individual level - cannot be understood without a detailed analysis of the social and cultural framework conditions. These framework conditions also include the status that older people enjoy in a society, the roles that are opened up or denied to them in a society, the entire social discourse about aging and old age. Is this phase of life mainly interpreted in terms of losses and burdens (also of a social nature) or are the resources of older people recognized, addressed and used? Such questions are absolutely essential for the identity of older people.

What is Ego Integrity and how do we transition from generativity?

Ego-integrity describes above all the ability of the individual to accept the life she or he has lived in its ups and downs, as something that was necessary in this way. It describes the ability to accept one’s own finitude while also looking at future generations. Looking at future generations in particular shows the close connections between ego integrity and generativity. The identification with subsequent generations - especially with the younger generation - developed in the phase of generativity is important in order to come to the conviction that the world will continue to exist even if one is no longer in it. And the conviction that the world will continue to exist even after the end of one's own material existence is significant for the integrity of the ego.

Finally, if we embrace Erikson’s stages of development, claims like “successful aging” or “pro-aging” are out of tune. As a society, are we looking at the process of aging from an ageist perspective?

We can observe a certain rejection of old age and older people in many societies - even if this rejection, one should perhaps speak of “reserve,” is rarely observed in the personal close environment. The deep acceptance of aging and old age, the recognition of emotional and cognitive, as well as social and cultural resources of old age would certainly promote the realization of Erik H. Erikson's idea of development.