Abstract
This article offers a meta-theoretical reformulation of the disengagement theory. It is argued that what social gerontologists describe in negative terms and label “disengagement” is in reality often a positive development towards gero-transcendence. This latter can be described as a shift in meta-perspective from a materialistic and rational view to a more cosmic and transcendent one, normally followed by an increase in life satisfaction. To understand the nature of gero-transcendence gerontologists have to make a meta-theoretical shift from a traditional positivist view to a view where disengagement is phenomenologically comprehended. As the article includes some criticism of interactionist-based social gerontology, it should be mentioned that the author himself has been and is working within this theoretical tradition. The article is as much self-criticism as anything else.
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Tornstam, L. Gero-transcendcncc: A reformulation of the disengagement theory. Aging Clin Exp Res 1, 55–63 (1989). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03323876
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03323876