Reading Our Lives
The poetics of growing old
Published on 15. May 2008
Book
Hardback
352 pages
978-0-19-530687-3 (ISBN)
Description
Against the background of Socrates' insight that the unexamined life is not worth living, Reading Our Lives investigates the often overlooked inside dimensions of aging. Despite popular portrayals of mid and later life as entailing inevitable decline, this book looks at ageing as, potentially, a process of poeisis: a creative endevour of fashioning meaning from the ever-accumulating texts - memories and reflections - that constitute our inner worlds. At its centre is the conviction that although we are constantly reading our lives to some degree anyway, doing so in a mindful manner is critical to our development in the second half of life.
Drawing on research in numerous disciplines - including cognitive psychology, neuroscience, and the psychology of ageing - this book presents a vision of aging that promises to accommodate such time-honoured concepts as wisdom and spirituality; one that understands aging as a matter not merely of getting old but of consciously growing old.
Drawing on research in numerous disciplines - including cognitive psychology, neuroscience, and the psychology of ageing - this book presents a vision of aging that promises to accommodate such time-honoured concepts as wisdom and spirituality; one that understands aging as a matter not merely of getting old but of consciously growing old.
Reviews / Votes
"...the book is geared toward those interested in the psychology of aging...[yet] its explorations into the neural basis of memory, especially autobiographical memory, make it a resource for cognitive neuroscientists as well. The prose-like style (as opposed to scientific language) extends the audience to those interested in the aging processes. Recommended."--Choice"...Reading Our Lives offers a philosophically grounded and neurobiologically sound perspective for examining late life. As such, it challenges the reader to bring this perspective to bear in understanding and helping the elderly patient."--The American Journal of Psychiatry
More details
Language
English
Place of publication
New York
United States
Target group
College/higher education
Dimensions
Height: 240 mm
Width: 161 mm
Thickness: 23 mm
Weight
678 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-19-530687-3 (9780195306873)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
E-Book
06/2008
1st Edition
OUP eBook
€36.99
Available for download
E-Book
06/2008
1st Edition
OUP eBook
€36.99
Available for download
Persons
William L. Randall, EdD, is Associate Professor of Gerontology at St. Thomas University, Fredericton, New Brunswick, Canada. Author of The Stories We Are and co-author, with Gary Kenyon, of Restorying Our Lives and Ordinary Wisdom, his ideas on narrative and human development have been published in such journals as Theory & Psychology, Narrative Inquiry, and the Journal of Aging Studies.
A. Elizabeth McKim, PhD, is Associate Professor of English, also at St. Thomas University. Her areas of interest include poetic and narrative theory, cognitive poetics, and applied literature. Her scholarship on literature and medicine and literature and aging has been published in Literature & Medicine and Narrative Inquiry.
A. Elizabeth McKim, PhD, is Associate Professor of English, also at St. Thomas University. Her areas of interest include poetic and narrative theory, cognitive poetics, and applied literature. Her scholarship on literature and medicine and literature and aging has been published in Literature & Medicine and Narrative Inquiry.
Content
PART ONE: READING OUR LIVES: POETICS EXPLORED; PART TWO: GROWING OLD: POETICS APPLIED