Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Acknowledgements
- 1 Defying the stereotype
- 2 The potential of social identity theory
- 3 On the subject of subjectivity
- 4 Personal stories
- 5 A nation in turmoil: Britain between the wars
- 6 Radicalization: coming to commitment
- 7 Political conviction and the social self
- 8 Growing into socialism
- Conclusion: aging and sustained purpose
- Notes
- Bibliography
- Index
8 - Growing into socialism
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 23 September 2009
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Acknowledgements
- 1 Defying the stereotype
- 2 The potential of social identity theory
- 3 On the subject of subjectivity
- 4 Personal stories
- 5 A nation in turmoil: Britain between the wars
- 6 Radicalization: coming to commitment
- 7 Political conviction and the social self
- 8 Growing into socialism
- Conclusion: aging and sustained purpose
- Notes
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
The best way to overcome it [fear of death] … is to make your interests gradually wider and more impersonal, until bit by bit the walls of the ego recede, and your life becomes increasingly merged in the universal life. An individual human experience should be like a river – small at first, narrowly contained within its banks, and rushing passionately past boulders and over waterfalls. Gradually the river grows wider, the banks recede, the waters flow more quietly, and in the end, without any visible break, they become merged in the sea, and painlessly lose their individual beings. The man who, in old age, can see his life in this way, will not suffer from the fear of death, since the things he cares for will continue.
Bertrand Russell (quoted in Seckel 1986: 33)One of the major limitations of developmental psychology which we identified in the opening pages of this book is its definition of what is and what is not growth. We examined one paradigm of life-span developmental theory, Levinson's Seasons of a Man's Life, which stated that at the end of the life cycle, development meant an individual ‘reaching his ultimate involvement with the self’ (1978: 38–39). While this might be an accurate description of the culmination of the life course in an individualistic society, Levinson's presentation of his theory extends into the realm of prescription, confounding what is with what ought to be.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Lifetimes of CommitmentAgeing, Politics, Psychology, pp. 173 - 205Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1991