Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-dzt6s Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-27T02:41:28.916Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Self as Process in Late-Life Reminiscence: Spiritual Attributes

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 November 2008

Edmund Sherman  and
Theodore A. Webb
Edmund Sherman
Affiliation:
School of Social Welfare, State University of New York at Albany, Richardson Hall, 135 Western Avenue, Albany, New York 12222, U.S.A.
Theodore A. Webb
Affiliation:
Minister Emeritus of the Unitarian-Universalist Society of Sacramento, California, U.S.A.
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Ageing has been referred to as a spiritual journey. Empirical data from gerontological research and paractice literature on the phenomenon of late-life reminiscence reveal a sense of self as process, and ageing as a spiritual journey for a number of older persons. The empirical data experiential reports on reminiscence from the elderly themselves point to a life trajectory of ‘joruney’ of the self that moves from a possessive attachment to an identification with the physical self, significant others, and material belongings to a view of self as a process, as ‘being’ rather than ‘having’ within and as part of a larger process. A process conception of the self derived from William James, contemporary social science, and process theology is delineated to explain the nature of this journey and this process. Two older women who illustrate the process conception of self in their reminiscences are presented, followed by a discussion of the spiritual implications of this conception.

Keywords

Selfreminiscenceprocess conceptionageing as spiritual journey
Type
Research Article
Information
Ageing & Society , Volume 14 , Issue 2 , June 1994 , pp. 255 - 267
Copyright
Copyright Cambridge University Press 1994

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

NOTES

1 Bianchi, E. L., Aging as a Spiritual Journey. New York: Crossroad, 1982.Google Scholar

2 Kenyon, G. M., Homo Viator: Metaphors of aging, authenticity, and meaning. In Kenyon, G. M., Birren, J., Schroots, J., (eds). Metaphors of Aging in Science and the Humanities New York: Spring Publishing, 1991.Google Scholar

3 Sherman, E., Reminiscence and the Self in Old Age. New York: Springer Publishing, 1991.Google Scholar

4 Boylin, W., Gordon, S. K. and Nehrke, M. F., Reminiscence and ego integrity in institutionalized elderly males. The Gerontologist, 16 (1976), 118–124.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

5 Coleman, P. G., Measuring reminiscence characteristics from conversation as adaptive features of old age. International Journal of Aging and Human Development, 5 (1974), 281–295.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

6 Havighurst, R. J. and Glasser, R., An Exploratory study of reminiscence. Journal of Gerontology, 27 (1972), 245–253CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed

7 Merriam, S. B. and Cross, L. H., Aging, reminiscence and life satisfaction. Activities, Adaption and Aging, (1981), 39–50.Google Scholar

8 Lieberman, M. A. and Tobin, S. S., The Experience of Old Age. New York: Basic Books, 1983.Google Scholar

9 Kierkegaard, S., Either/Or, (1843). Vol. I. London: Oxford University Press, 1944.Google Scholar

10 Flew, A., Dictionary of Philosophy. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1979.Google Scholar

11 Pagels, E., The Gnostic Gospels. New York: Random House, 1979.Google Scholar

12 Sherman, E., op. cit.Google Scholar

13 Sherman, E. and Peak, T., Patterns of reminiscence and the assessment of late life adjustment, Journal of Gerontological Social Work, 16 (1991), 59–74.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

14 Romaniuk, M. and Romaniuk, J. G., Looking back: An analysis of reminiscence functions and triggers. Experimental Aging Research, 7 (1981), 477–481.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed

15 Butler, R. N., The life review: An interpretation of reminiscence in the aged. Psychiatry, 26 (1963), 65–76.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed

16 Cobb, J. B. Jr., and Griffin, D. R., Process Theology: An Introductory Exposition. Philadelphia: Westminster, 1976.Google Scholar

17 Brown, D., James, R. E. Jr., and Reeves, G., Process Philosophy and Christian Thought. Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill, 1971.Google Scholar

18 Erikson, E., The Galilean sayings and the sense o f ‘I’, Yale Review, 70 (1981), 321–362.Google Scholar

19 James, W.Psychology: The Briefer Course. (1910), Allport, G. (ed). Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame Press, 1985.Google Scholar

20 Bengston, V. L., Reedy, M. N. and Gordon, C., Aging and Self-Conceptions: Personality Processes and Social Contexts. In Handbook of the Psychology of Aging. Birren, J. E. and Schaie, K. W. (eds). New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold, 1985.Google Scholar

21 Gordon, C. and Gergen, K.J. (eds), The Self in Social Interaction: Classic and Contemporary Perspectives. New York: Wiley, 1968.Google Scholar

22 Mead, G. H., Mind, Self, and Society, (posthumous), Morris, C. W., (ed), Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1934.Google Scholar

23 Cooley, C. H., Human Nature and the Social Order. New York: Charles Scribner's, 1902.Google Scholar

24 Gordon, C., Self-conceptions: configurations of content. In Gordon, C. and Gergen, K. J., (eds). The Self in Social Interaction. New York: Wiley, 1968, 116.Google Scholar

25 James, W., op. cit., 48.Google Scholar

26 Copleston, R., Religion and the One. New York: Crossroad, 1982.Google Scholar

27 Neugarten, B., Continuities and discontinuities of psychological issues into adult life, Human Development, 12 (1969), 121–130.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed

28 Gutmann, D. L., The Cross-cultural perspective: Notes toward a comparative psychology of aging, In Handbook of the Psychology of Aging, Birren, J. E. and Schaie, K. W., (eds) New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold, 1977.Google Scholar

29 Fromm, E., To Have or to Be, New York: Harper and Row, 24, 1976.Google Scholar

30 Fromm, E., To Have or to Be, New York: Harper and Row, 63.Google Scholar

31 Marcel, G., Being and Having: An Existentialist Diary, New York: Harper and Row, 1965.Google Scholar

32 James, W., The Varieties of Religious Experience, (1902). London: Collier MacMillan Ltd., 327, 1961.Google Scholar

33 Tillich, P., The eternal now. In The Meaning of Death. Zeifel, H. (ed). New York: McGraw-Hill, 1959.Google Scholar

34 Eliade, M., Cosmos and History: The Myth of the Eternal Return. New York: Torchbooks, 1959.Google Scholar

35 Cooley, , op. cit.Google Scholar

36 James, W., op. cit.Google Scholar

37 Tiryakian, E. A., The existential self and the person, In Gordon, C. and Gergen, K. J. (eds), The Self in Social Interaction, Vol. I, New York: John Wiley and Sons, Inc., 1968, 80.Google Scholar

38 Geertz, C., The Interpretation of Cultures, New York: Basic Books, 1973.Google Scholar

39 Murphy, G.Human Potentialities, New York: Basic Books, Inc., 1958.Google Scholar

40 Tillich, , op. cit.Google Scholar

41 Drengson, A. R., The sacred and the limits of the technological fix, Zygon: Journal of Religion and Science, 19, (1984).CrossRefGoogle Scholar

42 Butler, , op. cit.Google Scholar