Old man

At the present stage of development of society, humanity saves the largest number of old and elderly people compared to previous eras. Their number exceeds the total population of the planet in the XVII century. According to the UN, in 1950 there were 214 million people in the world over 60 years old, in 2000 there will already be 590 million, and in 2025 there will be 1,100 million, that is, the number of older people will increase for these years 5 times, while the population of the planet during this time will increase only 3 times. In this regard, scientists talk about the "aging" of society *. Along with this, in our country there is a difficult economic situation, the loss of jobs has increased, the standard of living has declined, the category of elderly people has fallen, as it were, on the “edge” of life.

Despite the relative diversity of specific approaches to the periodization of psychological aging in old age, the allocation of a serious regulatory crisis of 55–65 years is more or less generally recognized. Changing the social status and inner position of a person in relation to his life is the main content of this crisis. As in any age-psychological crisis, in the crisis of old age there are negative and positive moments.

Negative ones include a change in lifestyle, loss of many social connections, deterioration of health, a decrease in social and personal claims, a change in psychological functioning, and so on. The positive, creative points include the fact that almost all age psychologists believe that the classic image of the “mental fossil” is not suitable for a proper understanding of old age. Consciousness of a person and his psyche have a systemic structure, and a change (in particular, deterioration) of some psychological functions can be successfully compensated by other psychological functions.

The crisis is evidence that the subject in the conditions of the changed psycho-physiological capabilities of the organism, the state of health, the exhausted motivation for achievement and other things, is ready to change the way of life and the inner attitude to life.