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This article seeks to characterize the “ordeal of old age” in terms of a tension between a growing “separation from the world” and a permanent need to “remain part of the world”. On the one hand, the individual’s holds on the world tend to slacken with advancing age; personal environments undergo substantial change, with the withdrawal from activities and the increasing probability of loss of friends and family members. On the other hand, there is an effort to maintain some of these holds on the world, or to recreate others, by taking on new activities, making new contacts and seeking to maintain opportunities for interaction with the world. This perspective calls for an examination of three phenomena, starting with “deprise” 1, considered as the process of reorganizing activities as people set about tackling the new constraints facing them in advancing age (health problems, functional limitations, growing fatigue, fewer opportunities for social interaction, and increasing awareness that the end is approaching). This article discusses the issue of whether elderly individuals should be considered as “fulfilled”, with identity features grounded solely in the past, or whether there remains an outlook for further transformation. It then analyses the emergence of a sense of alienation from the world, counterbalanced by a desire to maintain opportunities for exercising familiarity with it. Far from being a homogeneous phenomenon, the ordeal of old age varies greatly with the resources available by way or protection or countermeasure. Such resources go beyond personal characteristics (state of health, strength of character, cognitive capacities, faculty for adaptation acquired earlier in life, etc.) to cover social surroundings, in the form of technical and human help in pursuing activities despite functional problems, support from family and friends, and stimulus received.
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