Socio-psychological dimensions of the Cicero’s views on the culture of ageing

Abstract

The social-psychological analysis of M.T. Cicero’s tractate “About Old Age” is presented. It is shown that as early as during the period of antiquity the philosopher distinguished two forms of ageing: adaptive and maladaptive. Cicero described the manifestations of these forms of ageing and defined factors influencing the development of adaptive and maladaptive ageing. Such factors included the society attitude towards the elderly, the character of intergeneration relationships, activity and responsibility of an individual for his or her lifestyle in old age. The tasks for the personality development while ageing were identified. The author describes three social levels of the geronto-culture: macro-, meso- and micro-level.