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1 results

  • 6 - Mental Health in Old Age

  • from Part I - Ageing and the Good Life
  • Edited by C. S. Wareham, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg
  • Book:
    The Cambridge Handbook of the Ethics of Ageing
    Published online:
    23 August 2022
    Print publication:
    04 August 2022, pp 79-91

  • Summary

    What does it mean to be mentally healthy in old age? According to one account, it means to have a mind that is normal, or natural, for an elderly person. According to another, it is to enjoy the same substantive goods that characterize mental health at other ages – so that the mentally healthy ninety-year-old is just like the mentally healthy forty-year-old. Neither approach is plausible. This chapter offers an alternative “resourcist” account, which evaluates mental health in old age by asking what mental resources are most likely to help someone to live well as an elderly person. Living well involves both having good moments and of contributing to a good life story. What it means to be mentally healthy in old age then depends on what opportunities are granted by natural ageing and by social practices for elderly people to expand and conclude the stories of their lives.