Psychologist Believes Stereotypes Lead to Premature Aging
OPS_admin | Aug 27, 2009 | Comments 0
Botox for the Brain - | Miller-McCune Online Magazine
A Harvard psychologist argues that our mindless acceptance of stereotypes leads to premature aging.
Here’s an innovative way to lower health care costs: Set everyone’s biological clock back 20 years. Senior citizens of 75 will enjoy the strength and stamina they had at 55, meaning they will need far less medical attention. The energetic elderly will remain productive members of their community later into life, which could also ease the strain on Social Security.
Granted, this sounds like an unusually wonky episode of The Twilight Zone. But three decades ago, Harvard University psychologist Ellen Langer conducted a landmark experiment that suggested reverse aging needn’t be relegated to the realm of science fiction. Her revealing study, the many follow-ups it spawned and the implications of their findings are the subject of her fascinating new book Counterclockwise: Mindful Health and the Power of Possibility.
t’s a brightly written work — Langer has a knack for metaphors — that deftly challenges an array of assumptions we hold about health. She reminds readers that many definitive-sounding diagnoses are in fact best guesses, and that no study, however elegant and persuasive, can truly tell us the best course of treatment for any particular patient. Physicians, she counsels, should be thought of as “consultants.” Ultimately, we know our own bodies best.
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