Some Psychodynamic Aspects of Agedness

Abstract

My assignment is to discuss some psychodynamic aspects of what I like to call agedness rather than aging. Aging is an ongoing process difficult of assessment. Agedness, however, is an assumed stance on the part of the organism that may or may not be due to organ dysfunction but may be behavioristically characteristic of a unified system complex of roles, assigned, ascribed, and much too often acquired. It may be both character and pathology. It may be independent of any overt manifestation of organic disease and thus present itself as a mode of coping or adaptive behavior most economical to the character structure of the individual. One may manifest agedness quite early in one’s life, behavioristically speaking. Thus it is the manifest behavior of the individual that interests me and the latent meaning of its content that intrigues me. For it is the understanding of the behavior and not only its origin that can produce the proper responses in dealing with it and with the problems that may ensue.