Abstract

The argument is divided into three parts. The first describes the perception of old age that society has today, confining it as a condition of loss of meaning, of uselessness, in an accelerated society measured by money. In the second, the characteristics, needs, and desires of this phase of life are represented through the relief of paradigms that define it as a vision of the world. Its foundations are the need for the other, far from the centrality of the ego, but aimed at emotional relationships. Detachment from competition, from success as symbols of power. Consequently, the elderly person is led to seek peace and not struggle, forgiveness and not justice, the joy of promoting the pleasure of the other. The perception of time that leads the elderly to travel in memory, but above all to go towards the future, is particularly highlighted. It is precisely the proximity of death that gives the meaning of an encounter with mystery and transcendence to the end of existence, thus allowing time to be enriched with the eternal. A clear detachment from the dominant perception in other ages where instead everything takes place in the present and oblivious to death. The third part describes the new functions of psychologies, both short-term and long-term, to respond to needs and potential, in addition to the existential disorders of old age.