Soul Pain: The Meaning of Suffering in Later Life (Society and Aging) (Society and Aging Series)

ABOUT THE BOOK This book explores the multifaceted experience of suffering in old age. Older adults suffer from a variety of causes such as illness, loss, and life disappointment, to name a few. Suffering also occurs due to experiences related to one's gender, ethnic background, and religion. Although gerontological literature has equated suffering with depression, grief, pain and sadness, elders themselves distinguished suffering from these concepts and at the same time showed how they are linked. Narratives of suffering from community-dwelling elders are interpreted in this book, along with the personal meaning of suffering that lies within each narrative. Through individual cases offered in each chapter, the book shows how elders assimilate the emotional and spiritual fractiousness of suffering into a life already laboring under the 'work' of old age, and at a stage in life when personal resources are lessened and time seems to be running out. During interviews, elderly respondents expressed their suffering non-verbally as well as with words. Their languages of suffering, such as silence, gestures, cries and stories, and their definitions, portraits, and theories about suffering were varied and unique. They viewed suffering as eminently human and part of the life course as well as a political outrage that thrives in "isms" that continue to exist-ageism, classism, racism, and sexism. Elders' definitions of suffering as well as their perception of its value emerged from the uniqueness of their lives as well as the profundity of their experiences.