WHO AM I NOW? PERSONAL IDENTITY AFTER 65

Soon after I turned 65, I retired from my career as professor, academic administrator, and librarian. Like many people, I looked forward to both events with relief and anticipation. I remember working in a paper mill during the summer, while I was an undergraduate. That work experience, short as it was, proved to be instructive in many ways, but the part of the job that sticks in my memory was sitting in the lunch room during breaks, and listening to the full-time employees of the mill describing the number of years or months left until they retired. Retirement seemed to be a, if not the, primary goal for most of these men (No, there were no women working in that part of the mill at that time.) I recall not fully understanding the sentiment, although by the end of a summer of shoveling coal and packing cartons of ceiling tile, I had a better feel for what these guys were talking about.

Nearly a half-century later, I am the one retiring. Weeks after my last day at work, I felt an uneasiness begin to permeate my thinking. Time weighed heavily on me; I found I could not say, even to myself, who I was now. What a strange and uncomfortable feeling that was! I realized my view of myself over the years consisted primarily in what I did in my career. I was mainly a professor, or an administrator, or a librarian. But what now? I could say to those who asked that I “used to be a professor,” or “I’m a former librarian.” Those answers did not satisfy. The ambiguity I felt about who I was now did not feel good at all.

It is my guess that I am not alone in posing this question for myself. Statistics compiled by the United States Bureau of the Census indicate that as of July 2008, the number of people aged 65 or older living in the United States was 22,404,913. That number represents an increase of nearly 2,000,000 over the same estimate for April 2000. A study done by the Mature Market Institute indicates that by 2030, the 65+ population will more than double to about 71.5 Million, and by 2050 will grow to 86.7 Million. While not every one of these people 65 or older will ask the “who am I now” question, it is safe to assume that a significant number will.

I thought the question I posed to myself could properly be defined as an inquiry into personal identity. As I began my investigation into my personal identity, I learned that the idea of identity has been explored by many researchers, for many, many years. I learned that the precise meaning of the term identity is elusive, and that there are various schools of thought as to the characteristics of identity. Still, in spite of the ambiguities that surround definitions of identity, the general thrust of the concept seems to “fit” the notion of “Who am I Now.”

This post on personal identity after 65 is intended to provide the reader with some guidance in seeking out information that may be useful for others to probe the question, “Who am I now?” If you want some suggestions for how to explore this issue yourself, please read on!

Seminal Books on Aging and Identity

The literature contains many excellent books on the topics of aging and identity. Following are examples of books that I find especially beneficial to anyone trying to understand their own personal identity as he or she ages. You may be able to find these books in your local or public library, or through one of the online distributors.

de Beauvoir, S. (1996). The coming of age. New York: W.W. Norton & Company.

Erikson, E. (1959). The problem of ego identity. Psychological Issues, Vol. 1, Number 1. Pp. 101-164.

Friedan, B. (1993). The Fountain of Age. New York: Simon & Schuster.

Johnson, M. (Ed)(2005). The Cambridge handbook of age and ageing. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Levinson, D. (1986). The seasons of a man’s life. New York: Ballantine Books.

Levinson, D. (1997). The seasons of a woman’s life. New York: Ballantine Books.

Neugarten, D. (Ed.) (1996). The meanings of age: Selected papers of Bernice L. Neugarten. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Sheehy, G. (1976). Passages: Predictable crises of adult life. New York: Dutton.

Biographies and Memoirs

Some people may find it beneficial to read biographies, autobiographies, or memoirs by or about individuals who have reached 65 and beyond, and who reflect on their lives from that perspective. There are, of course, many such publications; examples are listed below. Check your local public library to see if they have copies of these or other volumes.

Foster, P. (2004). Just beneath my skin: Autobiography and self-disclosure. Athens, GA: University of Georgia Press.

Higgins, C. (2000). Elder grace : the nobility of aging. Boston : Bulfinch Press/Little, Brown and Co.

Mandela, N. (2000). Long walk to freedom: The autobiography of Nelson Mandela. Steck-Vaughn.

O'Dea, C., Picot, F. and McCurdy, J. (2008). Skidding Sideways Through Our Fifties: Three Sisters Explore the Art of Growing Older. XLibris Corporation.

Roosevelt, E. (2000). The autobiography of Eleanor Roosevelt. DeCapo Press.

Waxman, B. (1998). To Live in the Center of the Moment: Literary Autobiographies of Aging. University of Virginia Press.

Magazines and Journals

Another good source of information about identity and aging is magazines and journals. Some of these publications are oriented toward scholarship and research, while others are focused on lay readers. Following are some examples of magazines/journals that you may find contain useful articles.

My suggestion for gaining access to these publications is to check with your public or academic library, to see if they carry the print versions of the magazines. Increasingly, the full text of these magazines is available in electronic form, which is usually provided through database subscriptions maintained by the library. Check with your public librarian for instructions on how to find and use electronic journals and magazines.

A A R P: The Magazine
United States
American Association of Retired Persons

A A R P Bulletin
United States
American Association of Retired Persons

Aging
United States
U.S. Administration on Aging, Department of Health & Human Services.

Current Gerontology and Geriatrics Research
United States
Hindawi Publishing Corp.

Gerontology News
United States
Gerontological Society of America.

International Journal of Ageing and Later Life
Sweden
Linkoepings Universitet.

Journal of Aging Studies
United Kingdom
Pergamon

Journal of Applied Gerontology: the official journal of the Southern Gerontological Society
United States
Sage Publications, Inc.

Psychology and Aging
United States
American Psychological Association.

The Internet Journal of Geriatrics and Gerontology
United States
Internet Scientific Publications, Llc.

Web sites

The Internet, through the World Wide Web, offers a significant amount of information about identity and aging. In searching the Web on this topic, however, one learns quickly that some of the most relevant information is contained in subscription or proprietary data bases, and is thus not readily available to the user. One way to get at this “blocked” information, of course, is to go through your local public or academic library and utilize the subscription databases provided by those libraries. Here are just a couple of examples of the kind of relevant information you might encounter in a search using the search terms “identity old age”:

Self and identity in advanced old age: validation of theory through longitudinal case analysis. Coleman PG, Ivani-Chalian C, Robinson M.
From PubMed
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10540759

As Old as You Feel: Age Identity In Middle and Later Life
From Social Forces
http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=95184403

Identity, old age, and society
http://www.find-health-articles.com/rec_pub_17093700-identity-old-age-society.htm

For many articles such as those listed above, a general search will provide the reader with an abstract of the article, but access to the full text of the article is gained only by the use of a paid-for subscription to the relevant database.

Having said all that, there are a number of sites that can be accessed, following a targeted search using a search engine such as Google. Following are a small number of examples of such sites:

10 Ways to Finding Your True Identity in Retirement
http://www.lifeafterteachingexpo.com/pdf/lifeafterteachingfreereport.pdf

Working Beyond Retirement: For Money, Identity, and Purpose
http://www.quintcareers.com/working_beyond_retirement.html

Age Identity and Subjective Well-Being
http://psychsoc.gerontologyjournals.org/cgi/content/full/60/3/S129#SEC1

Identity and getting older
http://www.templatenetwork.net/topaz/14/en/16_01.html

To find more articles pertaining to identity and aging, try using the following search strings in a search on Google or other engine:

Identity old age
Personal identity old age
Self-definition old age
Self-esteem old age

Social Web sites

Blogs are a relatively new way for people to connect with others who share an interest in a particular topic. With some searching, you can find blogs that address issues around aging and personal identity. Following are some examples, to give you a flavor of what these blogs are all about:

Age And Aging Blogs & Blog Posts
http://dir.blogflux.com/topic/age+and+aging.html

Midlife crisis Queen blog
http://www.blogcatalog.com/blog/midlife-crisis-queen/10652eca9f0e8772b2d566a810cfa415

Consider this: From the Council on Aging
http://www.considerthisblog.net/

AARP Blog
http://aarp.typepad.com/

Seniors Site
http://seniors-site.com/blog/2009/03/top-10-aging-myths-busted/

Seniors World Chronicle
http://www.blogcatalog.com/blogs/seniors-world-chronicle/posts/tag/aging/

The Future of Aging Blog
http://futureofaging.aahsa.org/2009/03/11/so-long-senior-citizen/

Everyone is Aging Blog
http://www.retirement-living.com/publisher/

Top 100 Senior Blogs & Web Sites
http://www.seniorsforliving.com/content/article/top-100-senior-blogs-web-sites/32/