Suicide of the aged: breakdown of value orientation?

Author(s): Wolf, R.

Journal/Book: Z Gerontol Geriatrie. 1998; 31: Platz der Deutschen Einheit 25, D-64293 Darmstadt, Germany. Dr Dietrich Steinkopff Verlag. 1-8.

Abstract: Suicide of the aged has often been understood as a careful deliberation of the quintessence of life. Nevertheless, it displays the breakdown or the entire lack of value orientation. Some gerontologists have come to terms with the fact that the ideal of value-free living results in the suicidality of the aged. Suicide seems to be a probable solution of their problems. But values regulate the social existence of humans. Accordingly, this paper considers suicide of the aged to be a result of this disorientation. Thus, it demands first of all that a rich set of values has to be developed, and secondly, that adequate resources of values have to be proposed. This can be achieved by four steps: 1) distance from the critical situation, 2) combination of interaction and mutual appreciation, 3) analyzing the reduced set of values, and 3) opening new priorities and preferences.

Note: Article Illhardt FJ, Univ Freiburg Klinikum, Zentrum Eth & Recht Med, Haus 1A, Elsasser Str 2M, D-79110 Freiburg, GERMANY

Keyword(s): suicide; age; value; reciprocity; moral education

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