Language in the Land of Age: The Third and Fourth Ages

 

Woman, Benson Sculpture Garden. May 2016. Loveland, Colorado. Credit: Mzuriana.

Third Age definition

The Third Age:

• Marks the culmination of an adult's life, 
• Refers to a person who is age 65 or older, and
• Who is vigorous and healthy, with a positive attitude about life

I surely do like the word culmination. It means the highest or climactic point of something, especially as attained after a long time. 

It's different from a peak. 

We've got a culmination of our dreams. A culmination of our life's work. A culmination of knowledge, skills or abilities that we achieve after hard work or dedication or practice. 

A peak is more mathematical - a high point of a mountain, a price point, a level of athleticism. 

A culmination is the fruit of growth. 

Fourth Age definition

The Fourth Age marks the "period of dependency, decrepitude, and death,"        

Oh, my. 

However, some folks use arbitrary numbers to define the Third Age and the Fourth Age: 

• Age 65 to 80 or 85 is the Third Age
• Age 80 or 85 is the Fourth Age

One discussion on definitions comes from  The Fourth Age: A Period of Psychological Mortality? in 2000 by Dr. Jacqui Smith.

I've chunked the excerpted text for faster digestion: 

1.      Proposals to distinguish a Third from a Fourth Age 

in the human life course came to the fore in the 1980s when researchers in the fields of demography, biodemography, gerontology, and sociology recognized that average life expectancy in western societies had increased ....  (e.g., Pifer & Bronte, 1986; 4 Science Special Report, 1996). 

2.      The definition of subgroups of the elderly population 

was one attempt to specify factors linked to the heterogeneity of the older population in terms of social participation, mortality, morbidity, and service needs.

3.      The precise definition of  [Third Age and Fourth Age]  membership, however, is still an open question. 

• Whereas, for example, retirement from productive participation in the workforce is usually regarded as defining the beginning of the Third Age, 
• There is less agreement about the definition of entry to the Fourth Age. .. .

4.      .... The answer ... depends ....  on whether the Fourth Age is defined by:

• The demographic features outlined above, or 
• Biological, functional, or quality of life characteristics. 

5.      According to the latter perspective, the Third Age exemplifies positive characteristics and the Fourth, dysfunction and death. 

6.      Neugarten (1974), for example, described those

• in the Third Age (young old) as retirees from the work force who are in relatively good health and are socially engaged; [and ...]
• the Fourth Age (oldest old) was typified by the onset of all the negative stereotypes of old age.

7.      Similarly, Laslett described the 

• Third Age as an era of personal achievement and fulfillment, and the 
• Fourth Age as an era of final dependence, decrepitude, and death.

I propose a third definition of the Fourth Age

In the gerontological context, the Fourth Age is that time when a body enters its natural shutdown phase. Or perhaps put another way: The life stage when the body begins to wind down as part of the natural course of things. 

Death will always be the outcome, but there is heterogeneity in the winding down. 

The closing down may take a few years; it may be a few months, weeks, or days. The winding down may be visible to both the one shutting down and to others. Or it may be invisible, having begun days, weeks, months earlier, but appearing sudden, as with one of my aunts, who dropped dead one day while on a walk. 

We can enjoy a rich quality of life during the closing down, even if we have become dependent on others for some of our daily needs, or we suffer some cognitive impairment, or we have lost some of our physical mobility, or if we have a condition that we know will take us down. 

Defining the Fourth Age as a natural shutting down phase makes much more sense to me than the alliterative "dependence, decrepitude, and death." It's the difference between describing a storm-crashed, "decrepit" house and a stone structure that is eroding steadily, but which still offers some bit of shelter from the elements to creatures who need it. There is beauty in the latter; not in the former.