Optimal adult development

     "Adult development is not merely a product of biology and social adaptation, but also involves individual choice and personal commitment to change. Indeed it should be viewed almost as the antithesis of childhood development. Throughout childhood and adolescence, one develops complex schemes and habituates to specific stimuli, until advanced levels of biological, cognitive, and social / emotional development are reached – physical maturation, abstract thinking, and autonomy. The liberative perspective requires that, for optimal adult development to occur, the individual must deconstruct the existing framework or at least not be constrained by expectations about how one should act or feel. Ideally, one returns to a state of receptivity or child-like openness to experience.”
      Levenson MR, Crumpler CA. Three Models of Adult Development. Human Development 1996; 39: 135-49. 

     “many elderly people exhibit (a form of self-transcendence called) gerotranscendence … characterized by a loss of traditional role-based definitions of the self. With increasing age, one experiences losses of friends, family, jobs, youthful looks, and so on, and thus the definition of the self becomes less dependent on externals. The boundaries between self and other also become more permeable, and one may become more aware of the unity of experience … called nonegoistic morality. … the progress of gerotranscendence can sometimes be hastened by crises.” 

     Aldwin CM, Levenson MR. Commentaries on Posttraumatic Growth: A Developmental Perspective. Psychological Inquiry 2004; 15(1): 19-92.

     Am I still caught-up in the momentum of childhood coping strategies in an endless losing battle to keep an unfriendly universe at bay - OR - can I enjoy a better quality of life – with actual joy, by choosing, moment-by-moment, to open up to reality as it is, warts and all, and live an authentic life?

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