Age

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A person in old age
Rear view of an old couple with whitened hair

Under the age is defined as the period of life around the average life expectancy of the people, that is the age between the middle adulthood and death . The aging in this stage of life is usually a decrease in the activity and a general physical decline ( senescence connected).

Apart from these basic facts - recognized in all societies - the image of old age is shaped by culture. Religious traditions play a central role , even in secular societies, whose members are often barely aware of these traditions. The reputation of age is also inconsistent. It is particularly respected and honored in many cultures; in some, like Judaism , being old is even considered an almost ideal living circumstance. In others, however, z. B. in ancient Athens , old people were systematically excluded . In Japan , Honoring the Elderly (敬老 の 日) has been an official annual holiday since 1966. Such cultural contrasts correspond on the philosophical and psychological level to models of activity, competence and opportunities of age on the one hand and deficit models on the other.

Age is the subject of biological , medical , legal , developmental psychological , philosophical , cultural anthropological , socio-historical , social , economic , political and cultural-scientific considerations. Gerontology strives for an interdisciplinary description of age .

Biological perspective

In the context of biogerontology - that sub-discipline of developmental biology that deals with research into the causes of aging and its consequences, senescence - more than 300 possible causes of aging are discussed today. Above all, wear and tear theories as well as cell biological theories based on genetic causes are cited .

Medical perspective

Few diseases occur exclusively or almost exclusively in old age; however, many occur more frequently in old age. Geriatrics - the sub-discipline of medicine that deals with the diseases of aging people - differentiates between age-associated diseases on the one hand and age syndromes on the other. Among the age-associated diseases include atherosclerosis (with heart attack and stroke ), the osteoarthritis , the dementia , the diabetes , the cataract , cancer and osteoporosis . At the age syndromes intelligence breakdown, immobility, instability (eg. As to fall at the age ), incontinence ( urinary incontinence , fecal incontinence ) and the deterioration of sensory abilities expected. The treatment of elderly patients is called gerotherapy .

Religious perspective

Old Testament and Judaism

Gaspare Traversi : Job mocked by his wife , oil painting from the 18th century. Job is one of the most important ancients of the OT.

The basic sentence of the Old Testament gerontology, which is binding for both the Jewish and Christian religions , is: A long and fulfilling life is a gift from God. Happy is he who dies “old and full of life”. In the books of Moses , longevity is promised, among other things, to those who honor father and mother and who do not use false weights. The Talmud , which is only binding for Judaism, links growing old to additional conditions, such as wearing the tefillin every day , striving for the burial of the dead, restricting the consumption of wine and the requirement of charity . The Talmud also differentiates between “old age” (60 years), “old age” (70), “old age” (80) and two other levels which, according to the OT, are only reached extremely rarely: at 90 a person is “Bowed to the grave” and at 100 “like dead and removed from the world”.

Many of the notions of old age that are widespread in the western world have their origins in the Old Testament - without being aware of it today . There, old age is associated with strengths such as prudence , experience , insight and wisdom , but also with weaknesses such as declining ability to love, sensory performance and health. Wisdom is indeed a gift of old age, but the old man is not protected against youthful folly either. In addition to statements such as "Gray hair is a splendid crown / you can find it on the path of righteousness" ( Prov 16.31  EU ), the Bible also occasionally presents a very gloomy picture of old age, such as Koh 12.1–7  EU .

Although the weaknesses and limitations associated with it are not denied, age in Judaism is consistently positive. Lifelong learning is a Jewish virtue that gives special value to old age. The acquired wisdom and experience, the lessening of physical urges, the extra time spent studying the Torah and practicing its commandments are seen as great benefits. Traditionally, however, studying Torah is a purely male privilege. Firmly anchored in the Bible is the admonition to treat old people - especially parents - with respect and deference. It is strictly imperative for Jewish children to look after their parents; the parents are accepted into the families of the children, mostly the daughters. In the Jewish community the elderly usually need no taxes to pay. They also have a privileged position in the synagogue : they sit in front, with their backs to the Torah shrine and their faces to the congregation, and are called first when the Torah is read.

Hermann L. Strack and Paul Billerbeck have pointed out that in the Old Testament up to Abraham there were old people , but no aging .

New Testament and Christianity

The New Testament makes few explicit statements about age, and these do not differ much from those of the Old Testament. The most prominent ancients of the NT are Elisabeth and Zacharias (parents of John the Baptist ), the prophets Simeon and Hanna and the Pharisee Nicodemus .

Islam

In Islam , age does not represent a special phase of life with special religiously based rights and obligations. One of the few statements that the Koran makes about age is that it is up to Allah to grant a person a short or long life; the same applies to weakness (including spiritual ones) and the gray hair of old age. Children are encouraged to treat their parents with kindness and reverence.

Culturally anchored in Muslim society is the imperative to respect the life experience of the older generation. The high reputation that the old age enjoys here is due, among other things, to the fact that the pilgrimage to Mecca is often only possible for believers in old age.

Buddhism

In Buddhism , which conceives life or the cycle of rebirths as suffering, aging (jarā) is also understood as suffering ( dukkha ); it thus appears in line with suffering z. B. of birth, illness and death. The cause of suffering are the three poisons of the mind, greed, hatred and delusion, or holding on to the transitory . In order for suffering to cease, these evils must be overcome through the Noble Eightfold Path . In Buddhism, old age - like illness and death - is regarded as a "messenger of the gods", namely as a fact that urges people to think seriously.

Hinduism

The Hinduism is closely related to Buddhism and tells him, among others, the concepts of rebirth and redemption ; there is a difference between the two religions. a. in the fact that Hinduism does not see worldly pursuits for success, pleasure and prosperity as in vain. The social duties of believers are fixed in the Manusmriti , a code of law that also describes the duties of the stages of life (āśrama) . Two of these four stages correspond to age: Vanaprastha ("one who goes into the forest solitude") and Sannyasin ("one who gives up the world"). The expression "Vanaprastha" denotes a man between 50 and 74 years of age who withdraws from worldly life into a hermit life with little possessions; in “sannyasin” the transition from the material to the spiritual life is even more advanced. Some religious texts only allow brahmins to practice this type of religion ; Women have traditionally been completely excluded.

Confucianism

The teachings of Confucius encompass a variety of rules of conduct towards parents, with the genealogical reference ( ancestor worship ) being the main focus. At the few passages in the text where the age (of the parents) is explicitly mentioned, the boys are asked to show respect and care ( filial piety ). Although old age is associated not only with wisdom but also with weakness, long life is considered an occasion for joy.

Philosophical perspective

Age activity model

Cicero

The Roman writer and philosopher Marcus Tullius Cicero referred in his 45/44 BC. Chr. Created font senectute de senectute opposition to the actions that are always carried out against age. He pointed out that it is primarily those who find old age difficult who were also unhappy in earlier phases of life. One should also not complain that they have actually reached an age to which they had from the outset reach want . Cicero advocates an active age that preserves and uses its resources (mental powers, reason, prudence, wisdom, memory, zeal, diligence) and finds meaning through preoccupation with art and science. Cicero regards the fact that the cravings and desires of youth diminish in old age as a downright blessing, because they only cause disaster. Even the proximity of old age to death is not really a misfortune, because everything in nature is transient, and regardless of whether one believes in an afterlife: death certainly does not bring a state in which one is miserable.

Cicero is considered to be the "intellectual originator" of modern concepts of active aging , especially the impulses that come from the World Health Organization (WHO).

Michel de Montaigne

In his essay About Age , written around 1580, the French philosopher Michel de Montaigne also pleaded for an active age in which one should pursue one's professional or other activity for the public benefit as long as possible.

Developmental perspective

Charlotte Bühler , one of the founders of both developmental and geriatric psychology, pointed out as early as 1933 that people develop throughout life, but also assumed that the focus of the psychology of old age was on preparation for the end, and she conceived the psychological one As a result, human development as a curve that rose until mid-life and then fell. This “ deficit model of old age ” has been considered obsolete in gerontology since the 1980s.

In his step model of psychosocial development, the psychoanalyst Erik H. Erikson described old age as a phase of life in which the soul life takes place in the field of tension between the two poles of “integrity” and “ despair ”. The fundamental conflict of old age is the challenge of accepting both the life that one looks back on and the death that one faces.

Sociological perspective

An old woman feeds seagulls by the sea.

The sociology of old age - a sub-discipline of sociology that was only founded in Germany in 1998 and deals with the social living conditions of old people - describes the family, work, leisure and living situation of old people, especially in rich countries in the Western world .

Social historical perspective

In modern industrial societies, the concept of old age is closely linked to leaving working life or entering retirement . The prerequisite for identifying “old age” and “retirement” - as well as for the absolute and relative extension of this phase of life - was the creation of institutions for social old-age security . The assumption of old-age security by a welfare state historically led to the relinquishment of traditional, private security systems, especially for relatives, who can thus adapt more easily to modern labor markets.

The first country in the world to introduce statutory pension insurance was the German Empire in 1889 . Many more followed, including Austria (1906) and Switzerland (1948).

Cultural perspective

Grandparents Iconography

The modern image of grandparents - lovingly accompanying the life of their grandchildren - emerged, as historian Erhard Chvojka has shown, only with civil society in the middle of the 18th century.

literature

Age - especially the age of the man - is a recurring theme in mythology and literature . One of the widespread motifs that can be assigned to this theme is the “old man in love” (e.g. Professor Unrat , master builder Solneß , Fuhrmann Henschel , Death in Venice ). This motif thrives on the cultural role expected of old men who should be wise and worthy, but not run after a woman or put themselves under her yoke. The motives of the curmudgeon ( A Christmas Carol ) and the misanthropist , who was disappointed by people in the course of his life, but is dependent on them ( Dyskolos ) , occasionally coincide with the age theme.

Further examples:

Popular culture

See also

literature

Sociologically
  • Silke van Dyk : Sociology of Age , transcript, Bielefeld 2015, ISBN 978-3-8376-1632-3 .
  • Jean-Pierre Junker: Age as Exile: for the social exclusion of the elderly Benziger, Zurich / Einsiedeln / Cologne 1973, ISBN 3-545-24040-1 (= critical texts , volume 13).
  • Matthias Meitzler: Sociology of Transience. Time, aging, death and remembering in a social context . Kovac, Hamburg 2011, ISBN 978-3-8300-5455-9 .
Cultural history
Philosophically and theologically
Others

Web links

Wiktionary: Age  - explanations of meanings, word origins, synonyms, translations
Commons : old people  - collection of images
Wikisource: Age  - Sources and Full Texts
Wikiquote: Age  - Quotes

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Anemia and Physical Health Decline in Old Age ( Memento from December 16, 2013 in the Internet Archive )
  2. ↑ Biogerontology ( Memento from January 8, 2011 in the Internet Archive )
  3. ^ Hans Franke: Very old and very old. Causes and Problems of Old Age. Springer-Verlag, Berlin / Heidelberg etc. 1987 (= Understandable Science. Volume 118), ISBN 3-540-18260-8 , p. 2.
  4. ↑ The old person in the Old Testament ( Memento of March 2, 2006 in the Internet Archive )
  5. ↑ Genesis 25.8; 1 chronicles 29:28; Job 42:17
  6. ↑ Exodus 20:12; Deuteronomy 11: 13-16
  7. ↑ a b The responsibility of the young towards the old ...
  8. ^ Tefillin ( Memento of March 14, 2016 in the Internet Archive )
  9. ↑ Proverbs of the Fathers 5:24; Psalms IV. Book, 90.10.
  10. ↑ Sirach 25: 4-6; Job 8.8 ff. And 12.12; Wisdom 4,8 f .; Daniel 13.50; Job 12:12.
  11. ↑ 1 Kings 1,1 ff., 14,4, 15,23; 2 Samuel 19:36 f.
  12. ↑ Job 12:12 and 32 : 9; Sirach 25.2.
  13. ↑ e.g. Sirach 8,6 and 27,27 f .; Leviticus 19.32; Exodus 21.15 + 17 and 22, 21-23; Proverbs 23:22.
  14. ↑ Sirach 3:12 f.
  15. ↑ a b The image of old age in religions. (No longer available online.) Formerly in the original ; accessed on July 15, 2020 .  ( Page no longer available , search in web archives )@1@ 2Template: Toter Link / www.hs-lausitz.de
  16. ↑ Hermann L. Strack, Paul Billerbeck: Commentary on the New Testament from Talmud and Midrash , 1997, p. 694.
  17. ↑ Page no longer available , search in web archives: Old people in the Bible ; The old person in the Old Testament ( Memento of March 2, 2006 in the Internet Archive )@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / www.zgv.info
  18. ↑ 16:70; 22: 5; 30:54
  19. ↑ 17:23
  20. ↑ The three messengers of the gods
  21. ↑ The yogi withdraws: vanaprastha ( Memento from April 26, 2009 in the Internet Archive )
  22. ↑ The Great Learning, 12; Analects (Lun Yu), 62
  23. ^ Renáta Ellermann: Active Aging: An Ethical Assessment of the Political Concept "Active Aging" . Diplomica Verlag, Hamburg 2014, p. 4.
  24. ↑ Michel de Montaigne: Of Age ( Memento of July 4, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) ( English )
  25. ↑ Charlotte Bühler: The human life course as a psychological problem. 1933; Heinz-Hermann Krüger: Handbook of educational biographical research. 2006, p. 345; Annegret Möser: Being able to find my own - in the conflict of generations. Impulses for a new perception of communication between young and old in the employee groups of the telephone counseling. Lit Verlag, 2002, p. 102f.
  26. ^ Erik K. Erikson: Identity and the life circle. 1994.
  27. ^ Andreas Motel-Klingebiel: Age and intergenerational contract in the change of the welfare state. Old-age security and private generational relationships in the second half of life. Weißensee-Verlag (Diss. FU Berlin), Berlin 2000, ISBN 3-934479-39-1 .
  28. ↑ Erhard Chvojka: History of the roles of grandparents from the 16th to the 20th century. Böhlau, Vienna 2003, ISBN 3-205-98465-X ; Gateway to a strange world. In: The time. December 22, 2011.
  29. ^ Elisabeth Frenzel : Motives of world literature. A lexicon of longitudinal sections of the history of poetry (= Kröner's pocket edition . Volume 301). 5th, revised and expanded edition. Kröner, Stuttgart 1999, ISBN 3-520-30105-9 , p. 1.
  30. ↑ Age
  31. ↑ video ; Video (with English subtitles); original French text