Abstract
Much anxiety is expressed in our day about the declining quality of life and the dehumanizing effects of startling advances in technology, even of those in biology and medicine. These worries find their saddest confirmation in the existence of the elderly people in our society, whose numbers are increasing, whose lives have been lengthened and, almost correspondingly, robbed of content and purpose. As Leon R. Kass said recently of old people, “we have learned how to increase their years, but we have not learned how to help them enjoy their days” (Science November 19, 1971). Knowing how to prolong life, we do not know what to do with it. Or, knowing how to enrich living, we are unwilling or unable to transform our understanding into practice.
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© 1972 Plenum Press, New York
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Gaitz, C.M. (1972). Prologue. In: Gaitz, C.M. (eds) Aging and the Brain. Advances in Behavioral Biology, vol 3. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4684-8503-5_1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4684-8503-5_1
Publisher Name: Springer, Boston, MA
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