Why Survive?: Being Old in America

by Butler, Robert N.

• ISBN13: 9780801874253
• ISBN10: 0801874254
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2002-11-01
• Publisher: JOHNS HOPKINS UNIV PRESS

Summary

"Butler questions the value of long life for its own sake; modern medicine, he says, has ironically created 'a huge group of people for whom survival is possible but satisfaction in living elusive.' He proposes sweeping policy reforms to redefine and restructure the institutions responsible for what he calls 'the tragedy of old age in America.'." -- New York Times Book Review

Author Biography

Robert N. Butler, M.D., is president and chief executive officer of the International Longevity Center--USA and professor of geriatrics at the Brookdale Department of Geriatrics and Adult Development at the Mount Sinai Medical Center in New York City. From 1975 to 1982 he was the founding director of the National Institute on Aging of the National Institutes of Health. In 1982 he founded the first department of geriatrics in a U.S. medical school. In 1976 Butler won the Pulitzer Prize for his book Why Survive?: Being Old in America. He is co-author (with Dr. Myrna I. Lewis) of the books Aging and Mental Health and Love and Sex After 60. He is presently working on a book, The Longevity Revolution.

Table of Contents

A Personal Note	ix
Preface	xi
The Tragedy of Old Age in America	1	(21)
How to Grow Old and Poor in an Affluent Society	22	(15)
What About My Pension?	37	(27)
The Right to Work	64	(39)
No Place to Live	103	(36)
No Time to Wait	139	(35)
The Unfulfilled Prescription	174	(51)
``They Are Only Senile''	225	(35)
Houses of Death Are a Lively Business	260	(40)
Victimization of the Elderly	300	(21)
Pacification and the Politics of Aging	321	(35)
The Gift of Life	356	(28)
Loosening Up Life	384	(18)
Growing Old Absurd	402	(43)
Appendixes
A. Sources of Gerontological and Geriatric Literature	423	(2)
B. Organizations Pertaining to the Elderly	425	(3)
C. Government Programs for the Elderly	428	(2)
D. Government Agencies for the Elderly	430	(5)
E. Other National Organizations with Programs in the Field of Aging	435	(10)
Acknowledgments	445	(2)
Notes	447	(24)
Bibliography	471	(12)
Index	483