Post by HLTD51 student KRIS In Teresa Brennan’s essay, Social Physics (in Woodward’s Figuring Age: Women, Bodies, Generations), she reveals a (somewhat unsettling) analogy of aging made by Sigmund Freud. Freud, the renowned founder of psychoanalysis, described the aging process as the slow formation of an “inorganic crust” which consumes the body over time. This comparison is mirrored… Read More
Post by HLTD51 student KAKhalfan Ageism is the process whereby older adults are viewed from a negative perspective regarding all the different attributes they possess. Whether these attributes are psychological, social or biological, the negative perceptions remain constant and present within our society. For example, from an ageist perspective “older adults are viewed, among others, as… Read More
Podcast by HLTD51 student Teaformeplease In this podcast, I examine how Philip Larkin’s poem The Old Fools (read or listen) critiques the concept of age and aging as decline. Despite the pessimism of its opening stanza, Larkin’s poem ultimately persuades us to think of aging along the lines of what age critics like Mary Russo call… Read More