Soul Pain

"Soul Pain explores the multifaceted experience of suffering in old age. Older adults suffer for a variety of reasons, including illness, loss, life disappointment, and life experiences related to gender, ethnic background, and religion. The gerontological literature has equated suffering with depression, grief, pain, and sadness, but elders themselves distinguish suffering from these other experiences while at the same time seeing how they are linked. The author provides interpretations of the narratives of suffering related by community-dwelling elders, along with the personal meaning of suffering that lies within each narrative. Through individual cases in each chapter, the author shows how elders assimilate the emotional and spiritual fractiousness of suffering into a life already laboring under the "work" of old age, at a stage in life when personal resources have diminished and time seems to be running out."--BOOK JACKET