Aging and the course of desire

The desire to make a difference in the world, to receive the esteem and approval of others, and to be attractive to others for the person one is, is a basic human longing. The fate of such desire over the course of life is a subject that has largely been relegated to studies of changing patterns of sexual activity with advancing age. The broader topic of the human desire to remain actively engaged in the world has yet to be fully developed and incorporated within sociological theories of aging. We know little of the variables that affect the workings of desire and the circumstances under which desire is more or less likely to be manifest. Due to its reluctance to bridge the disciplinary boundaries that separate structural and social psychological approaches to theorizing age, sociologists of aging and the life course have rarely considered the ways in which human desire for recognition, love, and influence affect behavior at various points in the life course. In this paper, I address the problem of the social breakdown syndrome that is thought to bring about an atrophy in the skills and talents of those in old age. With concepts drawn from the dramaturgical literature in sociology, I argue that those who continue to benefit from the emotional energy that derives from satisfying and productive social interactions will age in ways that cannot be explained by existing sociological theories of aging.