Spirituality of the Old.. Religious- Part 1.C. Bandhu Ishanand Vempeny, S. J.
SPIRITUALITY OF THE OLD ESPECIALLY OF
C. From the Psychological Point of View
Carl Gustav Jung could be considered the father of Midlife Psychology. Dr. Zalman gives a brief description of Jung’s view. First he gives a very important Jungian Principle from his book The Stages of Life, that “A human being would certainly not grow to be seventy or eighty years old if this longevity had no meaning for the species… The afternoon of human life must also have a significance of its own and cannot be merely a pitiful appendage to life’s morning… Whoever carries over into the afternoon the law of the morning… must pay for it with damage to his soul.” Zalman explains briefly Jung’s views in the light of this principle: “Jung held that spirituality should take precedence in later life when physical energy wanes and we lose friends and family members. He also believed that having a spiritual goal that points beyond ‘the purely natural man and his worldly existence’ makes for psychological health. What cured patients in the second half of life, he once observed, was cultivating a spiritual outlook on life.”[i]
Erik Erikson points out eight stages in human development. The first to the sixth relate to early infancy to young adulthood (the twenties). For our study of the aging, the last two are specially relevant. According to him, the task at this stage is to cultivate a proper balance of generativity and stagnation. Generativity is an extension of love into the future. It is a concern for the next generation and all future generations. As such, it is considerably less “selfish” than the intimacy of the previous stage: Intimacy, the love between lovers or friends, is a love between equals, and it is necessarily reciprocal. Of course we love each other unselfishly, but the reality is such that, if the love is not returned, we don’t consider it a true love. With generativity, that implicit expectation of reciprocity isn’t there, at least not as strongly. Few parents expect a “return on their investment” from their children; if they do, we don’t think of them as very good parents! Although the majority of people practice generativity by having and raising children, there are many other ways as well. Erikson considers teaching, writing, invention, the arts and sciences, social activism, and generally contributing to the welfare of future generations to be generativity as well.[ii]
The eighth and the final stage, he
calls, late adulthood, maturity or old age. The task of this stage is ego integrity.
This concept bears comparison with Jung’s stage of spirituality and Abraham
Maslow’s ‘fulfillment’ of “being needs” or “self-actualization” needs. This
stage is understood in contrast to the non-integrated situation of old age. In
the modern youth-culture a retired man can easily get into a sense of
unwantedness and uselessness. Their parenting is not required nor their ‘wise
advices’ solicited. Then there is a sense of biological uselessness, as the
body no longer does everything it used to. Then there are the illnesses of old
age, such as arthritis, diabetes, heart problems, concerns about breast and
ovarian and prostrate cancers. There come fears about things that one was never
afraid of before – the flu, for example, or just falling down. Along with the
illnesses come concerns of death. Friends die. Relatives die. One’s spouse
dies. It is, of course, certain that you, too, will have your turn. Faced with
all this, it might seem like everyone would feel despair.
In
response to this situation of despair some people get pre-occupied with their
achievements of the past and with blowing their own trumpets to the boredom of
people around them especially of the young. Some would be pre-occupied with
their bad decisions and failures. Such pre-occupations make them depressed,
spiteful, paranoid, hypochondriacal or developing the patterns of senility with
or without physical bases.
[i] Z. Schachter-Shalomi, From
Age-ing to Sage-ing, pp. 69-70.
[ii] Cf., Dr. C. George Boeree, “Erik Erikson” website.
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