aging in the social work view — hopeful or despairing?

AGING IN THE SOCIAL WORK VIEW —HOPEFUL OR DESPAIRING?Author(s): Frank BachSource: Canadian Journal of Social Work Education / Revue canadienne d'éducation en servicesocial, Vol. 7, No. 2 (1981), pp. 33-39Published by: Canadian Association for Social Work Education (CASWE)Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/41668988 .

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AGING IN THE SOCIAL WORK VIEW - HOPEFUL OR DESPAIRING?

Frank Bach, Associate Professor Faculty of Social Welfare University of Calgary

Le Service social, dans son enseignement et dans la pratique, perçoit souvent le vieillissement dans une perspective négative générale, et en particulier les écrits en sciences sociales et en médecine insistent sur la préoccupation de la perte et du déclin des forces. Il semblerait donc opportun que le service sociale aille au-delà des ces sources ordinaires pour chercher à comprendre la réalité des expériences de vie des années crépusulaires. Les humanités nous offrent ce moyen ď obtenir une image mieux équilibrée du troisième âge.

L'auteur propose un cadre qui permet ď explorer ces possibilités, de même que certains exemples de perceptions particulières de la finalité et de la signification de la vie chez les personnes âgées, qu'on trouve dans l'étude de la philosophie, de la littérature et des arts.

. . . ambiguity permeates all of our thinking about aging. We are not sure whether it is a phase of living that is both healthy and normal, or unhealthy but still normal, or whether it is unhealthy and abnormal. Is it a stage of life or simply the earliest stage of dying? Is being old worth one's whole life to attain? Shall we revere it, prevent it or cure it? Are we to anticipate growing old with hope, dread or indifference?1

The ambiguity and uncertainty highlighted in the above quotation are very evident in the process of curriculum development in aging. In addition, the pattern of avoidance so pervasive in the larger society also has a decided impact on faculty and students alike. Old people are not really valued, and medical and social scientists and gerontologists contribute negatively with their often narrow focus on the specifics of decline and dysfunction, loss of roles and loss of libido. Since we rely so heavily on the literature in these disciplines, we are clearly influenced by their findings and perspectives. In fact, there is every evidence that social workers, like a number of other helping professionals, give very low priority to the elderly. A statement by Erdman Palmore on this issue is very convincing:

Most medical practitioners tend to give a low priority to the aged. A series of 12 empirical studies all found that most medical students and doctors, nursing students and nurses, occupational therapy students, psychiatric clinic personnel, and social workers tend to believe the negative stereotypes about the aged and prefer to work with children or younger adults rather than with the aged. Few specialize or are interested in specializing in Geriatrics.2

There is every reason to believe that this negative view of aging in western society is grounded in fear and avoidance of aging and death, CJSWE/RCESS Volume 7 #2 33



and this applies to layman and professionals alike. In social work education this negative view surfaces clearly in the design and teaching of human growth and behaviour courses, which characteristically give primary emphasis to infancy, childhood, adolescence and early adulthood - the child-rearing years in the young family - with only passing references to the later years. This may be because most of our students are, by and large, still preoccupied with their own adolescence and young adulthood and because the literature on the early years is so much more developed and accessible.3 There is, of course, always more to cover than time permits, and the course is over before we can get to "old age." But there is also a good possibility of a pattern of avoidance by faculty, associated with their difficulty in facing and dealing with their own aging and death.

Michel Philibert, a French philosopher, suggests that much of our difficulty with aging is our lack of openness to concepts of aging in other societies and to the contributions of other disciplines, particularly the humanities. He illustrates this point with a thought-provoking quotation, which presents, very pointedly, the eastern concept of aging. It is by the Japanese painter Hokusai, written in 1835 at the age of 75 years, in his "Preface to a hundred drawings of the Fusy-Yama":

I have been in love with painting ever since I became conscious of it at the age of six. I drew some pictures I thought fairly good when I was fifty, but really nothing I did before the age of seventy was of any value at all. At seventy- three, I have at last caught every aspect of nature - birds, fish, animals, insects, trees, grass, all. When I am eighty I shall have developed still further, and will really master the secrets of art at ninety. When I reach a hundred my work will be truly sublime, and my final goal will be attained around the age of one hundred and ten, when every line and dot I draw will be imbued with life.4

This statement exudes enthusiam for life in the later years and a confidence in continuing growth in creativity. There is little concern about aging as a biological process, but great anticipation of intellectual and spiritual development.

In "East-Coker," the second of the "Four Quartets," Eliot's vision of old age is a far cry from the meaninglessness and purposelessness often emphasized by science. His lines generate excitement about the quest of the later years:

Old men ought to be explorers Here and there does not matter We must be still and still moving Into another intensity For a further union, a deeper communion Through the dark cold and the empty desolation . . .5

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To illustrate further the sharply different images of aging conjured up by the sciences and the humanities, we can compare the statements of a prominent gerontologist and an elderly writer and autobiographer. The first chapter of Alex Comfort's The Process of Aging is entitled "Old Age, the Last Enemy":

. . . later, we shall undergo a progressive loss of our vigor and resistance which, although imperceptible at first, will finally become so steep that we can live no longer, however well we look after ourselves, and however well society, and our doctors, look after us. This decline in vigor with the passing of time is called aging.6

By contrast, Florida Scott-Maxwell shares something of her experience in growing older:

We who are old know that age is more than a disability. It is an intense and varied experience, almost beyond our capacity at times, but something to be carried high. If it is a long defeat it is also a victory, meaningful for the initiates of time, if not for those who have come less far.7

There are, then, some possibilities to develop a balanced and realistic view of life in the later years, but this involves a search that will sometimes take us far off the beaten path of the social sciences. We must listen to the voice of human experience as expressed by individual elderly people, and others who have developed special insights into that experience - novelists, philosophers, poets, artists, etc. But how might we proceed in some systematic way to use these sources? This is certainly a major task which will require continuing exploration and research. However it may be useful to consider here some ways of making a beginning. First, we might examine a framework which will distinguish a number of ways society and the educational and service systems might view and treat elderly people. This should provide some perspective on our current approach to the study of aging, as well as some guidelines and goals for curriculum development. Then, for purposes of illustration, we will look at some ways of enriching concepts from gerontology by linking them to the humanities.

In his examination of the philosophical basis for creating educational opportunities for older adults, H.R. Moody, an American philospher, developed the following paradigm:

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Modal Patterns for Treatment of the Aged8

Modal pattern Characteristics Basic attitude

Rejection Segregation; mandatory Repression, retirement; poverty, avoidance neglect; family abandonment

Social Services Transfer payments (wel- Social conscience, fare social security); liberalism professional care; senior centers

Participation Second careers (employ- Social integration, ment or volunteer activity); "normalization" senior advocacy, autonomy

Self-actualization Individuation, psycholo- Wisdom, ego- gical growth, and integrity and self-transcendence

The patterns "rejection" and "social services" reflect to a great extent current attitudes and practices with regard to the elderly in Canada. The liberal policies of the welfare state provide "solutions" to the problems generated by an industrialized society. The problem is of course that this system creates and fosters dependency with very little opportunity to be engaged in truly meaningful work or activity.

"Participation" and "self-actualization," on the other hand, offer some scope to the older man or woman for some continuing stake and purpose in life. It is in these areas that social work education must seek its future direction. Moody's description of the "participation" pattern is certainly consistent with the traditional values and the implicit aspirations of social work:

The third stage, participation, constitutes an expanded view of the dignity and autonomy that are possible for old people. Unlike Stage II, which claims attention for old age in the name of conscience and political liberalism, Stage III rejects the passivity of the social services and proposes to cure the underlying causes and not just the symptoms of the pathology at hand. The cure proposed is essentially to enable old people, as far as possible, to live their lives in contact with the mainstream of society and to pursue the activités associated with a normal life in that society.9

While Moody's third stage emphasizes continuity in life experience, Stage IV implies some differences in the later years in comparison with earlier adult life. Carl Jung suggests that there are some significant differences in the psychological tasks of the latter half of life. Whereas

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the first half is directed to attaining a stable ego-identity with a variety of social roles, the last half requires a shedding of those roles or "masks" and engagement in a process of achieving an inner wholeness or "individuation" - the "transcendent self."10 Maslow's term, "self- actualization," is likely more achievable in the later years.11 Also relevant to Stage IV are Robert Butler's concept, "life review," an essential life task directed to discovering greater meaning of life as well as preparation for death,12 and Robert Peck's term, "ego transcendence," which describes the attainment of a perspective on our own individual lives that gives them universal significance and meaning.13

While these concepts from the social sciences and gerontology are essential to the systematic study of the later years, they seem insufficient and lacking in real meaning until we can find a poet or artist to bring them to life. The notion of transcendence or self-actualization for example remains rather abstract until we reflect upon Eliot's insight:

It seems, as one becomes older, That the past has another pattern, and ceases to be a mere sequence -

We had the experience but missed the meaning, And approach to the meaning restores the experience In a different form . . .

I have said before That the past experience revived in the meaning Is not the experience of one life only But of many generations . . .14

For Eliot, the search for meaning and a sense of connectedness with other human beings in the past and future generations provides the purpose and the solace of old age.

The artist's contribution to our understanding and appreciation of transcendence or self-actualization should also, of course, be recognized. Rembrandt's series of self-portraits make it possible for us to trace the changes in his physical characteristics over the years and to gain some perception of his personal and spiritual development as well. Jakob Rosenberg comments on the extraordinary phenomenon of Rembrandt's self-portraits (about 90 in all), which have had no equal in the entire history of art. While they had no commercial value, they did have a special purpose, as Rosenberg explains:

Rembrandt seems to have felt that he had to know himself if he wished to penetrate the problem of man's inner life. The phenomenon of the soul attracted him as strongly as his own personality as it did in that of others, and such profound

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self-realization was, it seems, indispensable for his access to the spiritual and the transcendental.15

Francisco Goya had a special interest in the experience of aging, as evidenced in a large number of his drawings and sketches. A particularly notable one is a figure of a very old man walking with the support of two canes, but with a gleam in his eye and the caption "Aun aprendo" (I am still learning)16.

In conclusion, there would seem to be some hope of developing a more positive and realistic view of aging in social work education, through greater use of selected sources in the humanities.17 It is likely that a more positive perspective would bring about a greater interest in the study of aging and perhaps a greater readiness to face our own aging, an essential prerequisite for both teaching and practice. This will of course require considerable study and reflection and openness to the opportunities of working with and learning from others - our students, clients, and our colleagues in literature and the fine arts. And we should not overlook elderly people in our community who have much to tell us about life's journey.

Notes

1 Geri Berg and Sally Gadow, "Towards More Human Meanings of Aging: Ideals and Images from Philosophy and Art," in Stuart F. Spicker et al., Aging and the Elderly: Humanistic Perspectives in Gerontology (Cleveland, 1978), p. 83.

2 Erdman Palmore, "Facts on Aging," Gerontologist , 17:4 (1977), 315-20. 3 Consider, for example, Erickson's classic eight stages of ego development, which set

forth the crucial life tasks requiring attention and completion. It is noteworthy that six of these concentrate on the first 25-30 years, while the remaining two are considered sufficient to cover the much longer period of 50-60 years of life span. The phases describing the latter two periods - the "Middle Adult" and the "Mature Adult" - are vague and abstract, and there is an implicit assumption that one just coasts along with little growth and change in these last 30 years. In addition, even Gail Sheehy's popular work, Passages: Predictable Crises of Adult Life , in effect ignores the last one-third to one-half of the life span by failing to consider anything of life beyond 50 years. The very first sentence of this book in particularly telling: "Men and women continue growing up adult from 18 to 50."

4 Michel Philibert, "Philosophies of Aging" (unpublished paper made available through the Institute of Gerontology, University of Michigan - Wayne State University).

5 T.S. Eliot, Four Quartets (London, 1979), p. 27. 6 Alex Comfort, The Process of Aging (London, 1965), p. 1.

7. Florida Scott-Maxwell, The Measure of My Days (New York, 1979), p. 5. 8 H.R. Moody, "Philosophical Presuppositions of Education for Old Age," Educational

Gerontology, 1 (1976), 2.

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9 Ibid., 6. 10 C.G. Jung, Modern Man in Search of a Soul (New York, 1933), pp. 95-1 14. 11 A. Maslow, Toward a Psychology of Being (Princeton, 1968), p. 197.

12 Robert N. Butler, 'The Life Review: An Interpretation of Reminiscence in the Aged," in Bernice L. Neugarten, ed., Middle Age and Aging (Chicago, 1968), pp. 486-96.

13 Robert C. Peck, "Psychological Developments in the Second Half of Life," in Neugarten, op. cit., pp. 88-92.

14 Eliot, op. cit. ("The Dry Salvages"), p. 33. 15 Jakob Rosenberg, Rembrandt's Life and Work (London, 1948), p. 37. 16 A copy of this drawing is contained in Pierre Gassier, Francisco Goya Drawings: The

Complete Albums (New York, 1973), p. 551. 17 There is a growing bibliography on the Humanities and Aging. One of the most

comprehensive and helpful references is Walter G. Moss, Humanistic Perspectives on Aging: An Annotated Bibliography and Essay (Ann Arbor, Mich., 1976).

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aging in the social work view — hopeful or despairing?

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