Individuation

I have discovered a new-to-me word. Betty Friedan in her book The Fountain of Age defines individuation as the process of becoming more of one's self. I think she in turn may be using her interpretation Carl Jung's definition. But, it is a real word, Latin in origin.

This word is used to describe what happens during our third stage of life, the first and second stages being childhood and adulthood. Unlike some popular misconceptions, Betty Friedan shows us through many studies that this stage is not one of conformity. We not only not grow into an homogeneous group, we actually have the greatest variability of any age group! She attributes this to the fact that we no longer need to conform to the latest style, or compete with the 'Jones', or fit in at work, school or social group. We can finally be ourselves, and true to ourselves. This can be a very freeing time.

I think we need a new name for our group that does not suggest decline, disease and death. While Friedan acknowledges that these things are definitely a part of this stage of life, it is by no means the defining feature, or at least it shouldn't be. While few studies have been done on healthy older people, some longitudinal studies have captured this group almost by accident, and most show that this group show little or no decline in mental abilities until the last year or so of life and several expanding, growing attributes. These attributes are things like generativity, emergent wisdom, autonomy and the ability to trust oneself. While not the usual measured attributes like math and spelling and puzzle solving, they are non the less important to the realm of happiness and contentment with life. Youth may have learning as a prime driver and adults may have doing; maybe this stage of life has something like contemplation or spirituality or maybe something even more expansive as its driver. This group has years of life experience at its disposal.