What frailty can tell us about ageing well: towards an alternative paradigm to ‘successful ageing’

Pickard, Susan ORCID: 0000-0003-3429-8880 (2024) What frailty can tell us about ageing well: towards an alternative paradigm to ‘successful ageing’. Gerontologist.

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Abstract

This paper considers the concept of successful ageing by means of a dialogue with the concept of frailty. This dialogue reveals the limits and blindspots of both concepts as well as their apparent dichotomy and the importance of understanding both the objective and subjective experience of ageing. In particular, the dialogue highlights that both frailty and successful ageing are social constructs that derive their meaning from what society values (autonomy, youthful capacities). They cannot by themselves account for the fact that flourishing and frailty are often found together whilst conversely successful ageing may not bring satisfaction. I argue that the arts and humanities supply us with conceptual and methodological tools with which to revisit what it is to age well offering a holistic approach that combines sensitivity both to older people’s lived experience and to the underpinning material conditions and embodied realities. For this purpose, and building on previous scholarship in cultural gerontology, I suggest the unique value of concepts and frameworks associated by Simone de Beauvoir. When brought into alignment with the tenets of cultural and narrative gerontology, these concepts facilitate a rich understanding of the nuances and paradoxes of flourishing in deep old age which can also aid in restorying both old age and the life course more generally. I illustrate this through two examples: a feminist self-help guide to ageing, which accepts both limitations and growth and a film that imagines the possibilities of authentic ageing even despite a context of poverty, patriarchy and Alzheimer’s Disease.

Item Type:	Article
Divisions:	Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences > School of Law and Social Justice
Depositing User:	Symplectic Admin
Date Deposited:	17 Apr 2024 09:28
Last Modified:	17 Apr 2024 09:28
URI:	https://livrepository.liverpool.ac.uk/id/eprint/3180388