Agism vs Wisdom
“In a culture of character, the ideal self was serious, disciplined, and honorable. What counted was not so much the impression one made in public as how one behaved in private.”
Simply put, culture can be defined by attributes it values, things it likes, social institutions it prefers, and the language it speaks. We tend to value our culture, and denigrate others. Although we usually think of culture to be associated by nationality, like English, French, or Japanese, we can also view a culture by traits that its ideal citizens value. Before the 20th century we had a Culture of Character where we valued traits seen on Table 1 – valued character attributes.
This has morphed into a Culture of Personality seen on Table 2 – valued attributes. It is clear from even a cursory view of social media that we value youth, vitality, impressions, and feelings, rather than experience, achievements, or other qualities. This means society has definitely changed within even one lifetime, into one that values appearance over facts, and views a successful “false marketing pitch” over the boring truth. It leaves us ripe for scamming. Successfully aged elderly used to be viewed as wise and knowledgeable, whereas the past century has turned all elderly into a minority group who look different, must be impaired, and are out of touch.
Agism
Agism, like racism, has been one of the -isms that reflects stereotyping at best, or prejudice and discrimination at worst.
A recent example was the unnecessary gratuitous statement in the DOJ Special Counsel Robert K Hur report (02/05/2024) about President Biden. He failed to come up with any reason to indict the President for finding classified documents in his garage, but started a controversy. After concluding there “was a shortage of evidence” to indict, he added, for no good reason, that “In addition to this… we also considered that, at trial, Mr. Biden would likely present himself to a jury, as he did during our interview of him, as a sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory… (It) would be difficult to convince a jury that they should convict a former president well into his eighties of a serious felony that requires a mental state of willfulness.” Why would he go out of his way to add this? It started a firestorm against the sitting President as an old fool, when the President has shown steadiness, wisdom, and trust among our allies and the Democrats who did not buy into agism.
It is true that normal cognitive aging shows decline in processing speed (you’re not as quick and it may take longer to learn apps), sensory changes (vision and hearing), visuospatial tasks (you’ll lose every video game to your grandchildren), and memory span (you can only remember 5 digits of a phone number instead of the whole thing). However, successful aging maintains verbal skills, long-term memory, reasoning abilities, and steadiness. Overall cognitive functions remain within the normal range, and can still be better than many younger adults if you were above average in your prime. Elderly know they are not as quick as in their peak years, but have more understanding. A memory researcher turned the tables once by asking, “How do young people compensate for their lack of experience?” “They have better memories.” They need to gather more information and think more quickly to come up with the same effortless conclusions as someone with age and experience.
Wisdom
Wisdom is often something people say, “I know it when I see it.” However, Meeks and Jeste helped to provide a definition of subcomponents, or traits, that define wisdom. It is something that characterizes successful aging.
They list six components of wisdom where underlying neurobiological systems have been identified in research. See Meeks and Jeste The Neurobiology of Wisdom.
- Prosocial attitudes and behaviors (not hate but positive feelings to others)
- Social and pragmatic decision making (knowing when, where, how, and why to apply what one knows)
- Emotional homeostasis (staying stable and calm under pressure)
- Reflective and Self-understanding (self-knowledge, not grandiose)
- Value relativism and tolerance (able to judge what is right in one circumstance can be wrong in another, willing to see things from multiple perspectives)
- Acknowledgement of and dealing effectively with uncertainty and ambiguity
Positive Psychiatry
Positive psychiatry is a new orientation in psychiatry that Jeste and others pioneered. It shifts our focus from treating mental illness to trying to prevent it. It promotes conditions and skills that lead to a sense of well-being. This preventive psychiatry emphasis was initially meant for people at high risk of developing mental and physical illness, but is now viewed as healthy living for all people. What it means in psychiatry is developing psychological traits like optimism, personal mastery, coping, self-efficacy, social engagement, spirituality, religiosity, and wisdom – including compassion. These same traits have been found to be associated with psychological hardiness.
The traits of wisdom can be learned if we develop the capacity to be mindful of ourselves and others and are motivated to practice becoming better versions of ourselves. Wisdom itself is the combination of all of these traits. It is more than the sum of its parts (subcomponents of wisdom). Being wise adds qualities like emotional IQ, compassion, pragmatism, flexibility, and honesty. Unlike being a sage or a monk, a wise person is a doer, not just a thinker. One can say Practice Makes Perfect for any skill, like a baby learning to walk and talk. We are all born with the capacity to do a lot, but we still need to feel empowered to learn and practice anything we want to be good at. Learning traits that make us more resilient will be discussed in later blogs.
