The Aging Process as Forward Movement and the Case for Detours and Backward Steps

Abstract

This article focuses on Pruyser's (Pastor Psychol 24:102-118, 1975) view presented in his article titled "Aging: Downward, Upward, or Forword?" that the later stages of aging are not a downward movement from a higher peak but the continuation of a forward movement, and that manifestations of gains as well as losses in older adulthood support this view. While expressing agreement with this view I draw on Sigmund Freud's discussion of the death instinct in Beyond the Pleasure Principle (Freud 1920/1959) to suggest that the later stages of the aging process may involve an increase in detours and backward movements. Suggesting that these detours and backward steps are potentially beneficial, I conclude that Freud provides guidelines for how we may view and evaluate the losses and gains that Pruyser identifies as characteristic of the later stages of the aging process.