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KMID : 0895320200290010043
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Korean Journal of Research in Gerontology
2020 Volume.29 No. 1 p.43 ~ p.65
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Psychological Perspectives of Life and Death: Understanding Relations between Longevity and Death Anxiety
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Youn Ga-Hyun
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Abstract
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All the organisms die without exception, and human beings are the only animals that know they die. In the second half of life, people are more aware of their own death while they encounter their acquaintances’ deaths more often than they were in their youth. The desire to live a long life is one of the most basic wishes of people, but the desire would become greater in the old age and thus they might be more afraid of their own death. There would be a variety of means and ways to cope with such fears. For instance, they are attached to objects that can remind them of their past, the reason for it is that the objects have the function of providing consolation to feel far from death. And their stubbornness and rigidity would result from a kind of death anxiety, that is, the wish to remain the same as much as their own that they have maintained since their youth. In addition, leaving a legacy in the mind that does not want their traces to disappear after death is a means of coping with the anxiety. According to Erikson, however, the developmental task of ego integrity should be properly completely in the second half of life in order to live as a wise person or to prevent the deterioration of the quality of life. The wise person has a broad view of the world, is a man of great control, tries to value and satisfy the present more than his/her obsession with the unchangeable past, and accepts his/her death without fear. In this context, the final developmental task to complete in old age is to spend every moment with no fear of death.
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KEYWORD
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Ego integrity, Wisdom, Longevity, Older adults, Second half of life, Death anxiety
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