Life Span and Parkinsons Disease - Research Paper Example

?Narrative: Mr. Asad I met my interviewee, Mr. Asad two years ago through the volunteer agency, Faith in Action. More recently, I asked him to be my subject for this interview project. Mr. Asad is a 77-year-old white man who has had Parkinson’s disease for more than 15 years. According to him, he had a normal childhood and nothing significant happened until he was 14 or 15 years old. When his father became ill, he had to learn the family mail delivery business. Although it was difficult for him to learn about the business at such a young age, he enjoyed being taught by his father. He cherished the time they were able to spend together; because before he became ill, his father was too busy to spend much time with him. Mr. Asad said that he was definitely close to his mother, a stay-at-home mother who took care of household, the children and sometimes helped with her husband’s business. Mr. Asad admitted that still misses his mother very much. Mr. Asad was born and raised in Egypt. When he was a teenager, his father got sick and he was sent abroad to live with relatives. At first, he did not really know why his parents sent him to England but he realized they only want him to get a good education. So on he went to study high school and college there and then went on to become an English professor. Asked what he would like to do if he had the chance to be young again, he said he wanted to have enjoyed his youth. He was forced to grow up too fast because that he had to take care of the family business. He had to stand in for his father, because he was the only son. However, he has no regrets. He just missed his adolescence and laughingly admitted that he had not had enough opportunities to meet girls back then. Mr. Asad speaks 4 languages: Arabic, Spanish, French and English. That is why he was able to become an English teacher. He taught English to other Egyptians. He told me that he really loved teaching English and missed his work as a teacher. As a young adult, he worked as an archeologist at the British Broadcasting Company, Ltd. (BBC) and he produced a television show about Egypt but he did not mention the title or year. For Mr. Asad, it was the most memorable and enjoyable job he has ever had. At time that he met a special lady but her family did not approve of their relationship so he had to let go of their chance to be together. Even now, he says he does not understand why her family did not like him. It was difficult because she was so special to him. A few years later he met and married someone else. Soon he realized that he had married the wrong woman. However, due to his religious beliefs, he did not divorce her. He worked very hard and supported his family and raised two children with her. In 1980 he lost his father. Four years later 1984 he lost his mother; thirteen years ago he lost his wife. Shortly after his wife passed away, his Parkinson’s disease became worse. He said he missed his parents, especially his mother. He did not talk much about his wife and he told me that before she passed away, he found out that she had saved money behind without his knowledge and had given all of it to her church instead of to their children. He seemed to still be upset about that. He talked much about his daughter but less about his son. He also talks about his grandchildren, especially his daughter’s daughter. When asked why he did not talk about his son, he said that his son reminded him so much of his wife, who had been so attached to money. He believes it is okay to save money but at the same time, his son needs to know how to enjoy spending money too. In contrast, he his daughter are very close, and every chance he gets, he sees her and her family because they always have fun together. Because of his Parkinson’s disease, he does not have much mobility so he has a live-in caregiver all who takes care of his everyday needs. They seem to get along well together, as they joke and laugh all the time. Although there have been advances in the study of Parkinson’s disease, Mr. Asad has been living with it for more than 15 years. In the two years that I have known him, I never heard him complain. Finally, I asked him what aging means to him. He told me that aging may affect him physically but not his spirit and attitude. So, he said that he will continue to live life fully, enjoy food, spend great time with his family and friends and make more new friends. Critical Analysis Unlike many senior citizens who have grown tired after living a difficult life, Mr. Asad remains positive because he continues to live a productive life. His life has not been all rosy, but his positive disposition has carried him through life’s trials and tribulations. This critical analysis of his life story will borrow from theories of human development which will be incorporated into the analysis part of this paper. Mr. Asad claims to have had a normal childhood, which means he had the usual developmental milestones. This implies that he must have passed all the stages of growth and development because he said he could not remember any significant changes. According to Piaget’s cognitive development theory (1969), a child develops his learning abilities that prepare him to survive life’s challenges. Initially, he discovers the world using his senses, and as he grows, learns to form associations and conclusions. With close relationships to significant adults, the child develops a sense of security enabling him to venture into more learning about his world. Mr. Asad’s supportive family system empowered him to breeze through his cognitive stages of development to help him grow into a smart and fulfilled adult. His mother played a huge role in this development because Mr. Asad had a strong bond with her as she nurtured him and his siblings. Since his father was always at work, Mr. Asad was on hand to assist his mother in tending to his younger siblings and helping her with chores. As a teenager, Mr. Asad was sent to school in England. According to Brofenbrenner’s ecological model, (1979) the behavior and development of an individual is an interplay of biological and personality factors, environment, society, and culture. Mr. Asad moved into an unfamiliar ecological system. Migrating to another country can be overwhelming. Having gone through the microsystem of his family, the mesosystem between his home and school, and expanding his world in the exosystem of his community, he now ventures to enter the fourth system: the macrosystem of England. The macrosystem includes the customs, values and laws that are important in a person’s culture and upbringing. Mr. Asad brought his macrosystem from Egypt and attempted to integrate it into the macrosystem he found in England. Erikson’s theory of psychosocial development contends that “at each stage of life we face the task of establishing equilibrium between ourselves and our social world.” (Corey, 2005, p. 53). This entailed conflicts between two opposing constructs like identity formation vs. identity diffusion. Mr. Asad’s childhood had various stages, each with its own personal conflicts. From the interview, it is assumed that he was able to adapt to such “Eriksonian” conflicts way up to his adolescence when the conflict was identity formation vs. identity diffusion. Adolescence, being the time of transition between childhood and adulthood becomes a challenging time of testing limits, gaining more independence and establishing a new identity. There surfaces the need to clarify self-identity, life goals and life’s meaning, and failure to achieve a sense of identity results in role confusion (Erikson, 1963, p. 63). This is when Mr. Asad began taking over his father’s business and having to leave for England. From a very secure childhood, he faced huge changes. His independence helped him discover his identity but being away from his family, his source of nurturance and security threatened his identity formation. Without the guidance of his parents, he might have experienced identity diffusion. Mr. Asad did not give specifics to his life as a teenager in England, and it was assumed that his life with relatives was uneventful, and that they provided him the support he needed. Entering adult life and embarking on a profession brought more changes. According to Erikson, human development entails personal conflicts and each psychosocial stage of development demands certain adaptations. Confronting one’s environment involves a shift in perspective and this requires us to refocus our energies in accordance to the stage of life we are in (Schultz & Schultz, 2005). Erikson contends that “a crisis is a turning point in life, when we have the potential to move forward or to regress” (Erikson, 1963, p. 75). Whatever we decide reflects the strength of our character. As a young adult, it is normal to meet and engage in relationships with the opposite sex. This is when one steps into the Intimacy vs. Distantiation vs. Self-Absorption stage of Psychosocial development. The developmental task of young adults is to form intimate relationships by seeking their lifetime mates through romantic relationships of very close friendships that form strong emotional bonds. However, when intimacy is not achieved, alienation and isolation take place (Erikson, 1963). This is what happened to Mr. Asad. He met a special lady and that brought hopes of sharing an intimate relationship with her. However, her family did not approve of him so he had to let her go. He then decided to concentrate on his career. The question of not fighting for the lady despite her family’s disapproval of him comes up. Why did he just give up this situation when he really wanted it? This may be traced to his own sense of family obedience. He conformed to his family’s expectation to take care of his father’s business when he was not ready to do so. He likewise respected the wishes of the lady’s family because he did not want her to go against their wishes. Years later, he met and married someone else, even though they were incompatible. Instead of divorcing her, he stayed in the marriage and had two lovely children. His refusal to consider divorce was not out of love and devotion to his wife but to his religion and family upbringing. He did not want to compromise his values by giving in to what he wanted. In a psychoanalytical sense, he put up his defenses. To survive living with negative experiences that may have marred a person’s personality or life views, one develops “defense mechanisms” that aim to keep those traumatic experiences repressed in the unconscious (Corey, 2005). Perhaps using his religious beliefs and family upbringing as his reason not to divorce his wife was a defense mechanism he used to cover up his own uncertainty and fear of what society may think of his failed marriage. This may be in his unconscious mind but he represses it there and just covers it up by staying married to the wrong woman, afraid to go against his family values. That is why he did not divorce her. Mr. Asad’s career was a colorful one. He was proficient in languages so he was well-suited to be an English teacher. He also came from a culture so rich in history and his intelligence and eloquence brought him to a job at BBC as an archeologist and TV producer of a show on Egypt. For him, that was the high point of his career. Years after, he went to America and continued his career as an English professor there. This is the stage in his life when the conflict is between generativity and stagnation. Adults in the mid-life stage have a strong urge to leave a legacy by helping the new generation. They become very productive as they adjust the discrepancy between their dreams and their actual accomplishments. “Failure to achieve a sense of productivity results in psychological stagnation” (Erikson, 1963, p. 58). For Mr. Asad, he did not allow failure to come into his career and he chose generativity. When he discovered that she had been keeping money from him and giving it to her church. Although Mr. Asad was a religious man, as his mother had raised him to be, he was upset that his wife was not thinking of her children’s welfare when she gave all her money to the church. Now that he observes his son to be the same in his behavior with money, he is reminded of how similar he is to his mother. He disapproves of his son’s attachment to money and his inability to enjoy it. Klein’s (1984) object relations theory explains relationships, usually beginning with a mother and her child. It is based on the principle of establishing strong and healthy relationships with one’s mother early in life, and if there is failure in such a relationship, it may lead to problems later. This theory may explain the difference between Mr. Asad and his son. Mr. Asad shared a loving and healthy relationship with his mother that is why he turned out to be emotionally stable and open. His mother was generous with love, so he never felt the need to be selfish. With his son, however, it was the opposite. Gauging from his belief that he married the wrong woman, his wife did not share the same values as him especially when it comes to finances. Mr. Asad admitted that they did not communicate well and that may be the reason why she did not tell him about her plans in leaving her wealth to her church instead of to her children. His son may have been disappointed with his mother that is why he secures himself by amassing wealth and saving it instead of “wasting” it. The way that Mr. Asad relates to his two children may be explained by Skinner’s (1971) behaviorist theory. According to this theory, a behavior is reinforced if positive feelings are experienced by a person in response to an event and in contrast, a behavior is extinguished or decreased in frequency if such an event brings about negative experiences. Mr. Asad does not spend as much time with his son because it causes feelings of regret and disappointment at how his son turned out to be very much like his mother. On the other hand, his daughter and her family, give him so much joy, so he enjoys talking about them and spends as much time with them as he can. He believes that his son does not enjoy his company, so he does not spend as much time with him. Skinner explains that our beliefs are built when we increase the probability of action by reinforcing behavior. However when we give verbal assurances on something that the individual does not actually question, demonstrate its integrity or give more specific descriptions, then we challenge those beliefs. Perhaps in Mr. Asad’s case, he is only waiting for his son to show him that he cares enough to spend more time with his father. That may encourage Mr. Asad to strengthen their relationship. Mr. Asad claims that Parkinson’s disease has not broken his spirit. He has a hired caregiver. His positive disposition is manifested in his happy relationships with his family and with his caregiver whom he treats very well. Being in Erikson’s last stage of psychosocial development, Integrity vs. Despair and Disgust, Mr. Asad lives with integrity. Late adulthood is a time when ego integrity over one’s lifetime is evaluated. If one looks back at the live he has lived with few regrets, then ego integrity is achieved. On the other hand, failure to achieve ego integrity leads to feelings of despair, hopelessness, guilt, resentment and self-rejection” (Erikson, 1963, p. 65). From the interview, it seems pretty obvious that Mr. Asad looks back on the life he has lived with fondness even if there have been dark moments (unhappy marriage, death of his parents, Parkinson’s disease). With the painful things that happened to him, it would be normal for any other person to despair and live with regret, but Mr. Asad seems to be quite contented. If one is to analyze Mr. Asad’s life with Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, it can be said that he has satisfied all his needs. Maslow (1970) formulated a hierarchy of needs that must be satisfied in a person’s lifetime, and that as more basic needs are fulfilled, higher ones must be met. The hierarchy of needs is as follows: physiological; safety; belongingness and love; esteem and self-actualization. Mr. Asad’s physiological, needs have been met by his family, especially his mother. His safety needs may have been threatened when he went to live abroad. The new set of needs that emerge upon the gratification of physiological needs are the safety needs for security, stability, dependency, protection, freedom from fear, anxiety and chaos as well as the need for structure, order, law, limits, strength in the protector (Maslow, 1970). He was able to satisfy those safety needs by living with relatives. As an adult, he also felt safe. Maslow pictures a healthy and fortunate adult as one whose safety needs have been satisfied. This is largely credited to a peaceful and stable society that makes its members feel unthreatened by “wild animals, extremes of temperature, criminal assault, murder, chaos, tyranny and so on” (Maslow, 1970, p. 41). Mr. Asad’s attempts at romantic relationships may have been unsuccessful. His first love relationship did not work out and he felt stuck in an unhappy marriage. For both relationships, his need for belongingness and love were not fulfilled. It was a good thing he had his parents and his daughter’s family. Mr. Asad did not seem to have any problems with his esteem needs. According to Maslow, esteem needs are classified into two sets. The first set is the desire for strength, achievement, adequacy, mastery and competence, confidence, independence and freedom. The second is the desire for reputation or prestige, status, fame and glory, dominance, recognition, attention, importance, dignity or appreciation. When these needs are met, the individual has self-confidence, worth, strength, capability and adequacy, and is a useful contributor to the world. Thwarting these needs produces feelings of inferiority, weakness and helplessness (Maslow, 1970, p. 35). Apparently, Mr. Asad’s intelligence, confidence, positivity and good social skills have helped him become successful and recognized in his career. The highest need is for self-actualization: “man’s desire for self-fulfillment, namely, to the tendency for him to become actualized in what he is potentially” (Maslow, 1970, p. 46). As Maslow (1970) says, “What a man can be, he must be. He must be true to his own nature” (p. 46). An individual will desire to be better at what he does well, usually where his gifts lie. The emergence of this self-actualization need rests upon a prior gratification of the physiological, safety, love and esteem needs (Maslow, 1970). Mr. Asad has indeed lived a life that has left him self-actualized. Throughout the bumps along the road, he managed to arrive at his destination. He can look back at his life and dwell on the negative parts or see them as lessons that helped him go further. In his interview, he admitted that aging may affect his body, but he will not let it affect his spirit and attitude. Those are very strong words that show that he is a fighter. He resolves to continue to live fully – to enjoy food, family and friends and to have fun. Reflection: In doing the critical analysis of Mr. Asad’s life span, I was impressed at how the theories all applied to him. Guided by Garthwait’s (2007) wisdom in life reviews, I was awed at how wise those theorists must be to be able to analyze human development so thoroughly and logically. I learned so much from their insights. Mr. Asad’s cheerful take on life and death is an inspiration. He is the embodiment of hope because despite all the sadness he has experienced, he did not allow those experiences to break him. He may be disabled by his disease, but he continues to live life to the fullest. When I interviewed Mr. Asad, I wondered how it would be for me when I get old. What will I be doing at his age? Like him, I hope I will have had meaningful life with good health and time to spend with my loved ones. In contemplating life and death, it is worthy to reflect on the words of Kubler-Ross (1969): Man has to defend himself psychologically in many ways against this increased fear of death and increased inability to foresee and protect himself against it. Psychologically he can deny the reality of his own death for a while. Since in our unconscious we cannot perceive our own death and do believe in our own immortality, but can conceive our neighbor’s death, news of numbers of people killed in battle, in wars, on the highways only supports our unconscious belief in our own immortality and allows us – in the privacy and secrecy of our unconscious mind- to rejoice that it is “the next guy, not me.” (p. 28) I think Kubler-Ross’ words were frank and insightful, something we may believe in our minds but do not have the courage to say it out loud. Undertaking this project has made me really reflect on life and death and where I am and what my beliefs are at this point in my life. A few years back, my mother told me that “getting old is not a fun experience.” I did not know what to say because I did not understand what she meant. For me, life is filled with challenges and I am busy hurdling those challenges without regard for risks that may end my life. I believe being a young person makes me think that death is still so far away, maybe still decades from now since I am young and healthy. After talking with Mr. Asad, I know what my mother was saying. Kubler-Ross said that we always think we are at the prime of our life, but in as we get older, we lose our physical strength and find it difficult to adjust. We all age and die. I do appreciate this project and Mr. Asad as well, as it has taught me so many lessons about life and death. With Mr. Asad, at his last stage of life, he seems to breathe in more life than other young people I know. He looks forward to a happy death, being able to live a happy life. His influence on my life perspective has been remarkable. Now, I do look forward to living well. I learned that we should take care of ourselves and live the best we can and enjoy each moment we share with our loved ones. References Bronfenbrenner, U. (1979). The ecology of human development. Cambridge MA: Harvard University Press. Corey, G. (2005). Theory and practice of counseling and psychotherapy. 7th ed. City, State: Brooks/Cole, a division of Thomson Learning Inc. Erikson, E. H. (1963). Childhood and society (2nd ed.). New York, NY: Norton. Garthwait, C. (2007 A century in review): A decade-by-decade social and historical timeline. In E.L. Csikai and B. Jones (Eds). Teaching resources for end-of-life and palliative care courses (pp. 18-31). Chicago: Lyceum Books, Inc. Klein, M. (1984). The psycho-analysis of children (A. Strachey, Trans.). R. Money-Kyrle (Ed.), The writings of Melanie Klein (Vol. 2). New York, NY: Free Press. Kubler-Ross, E. (1969). On Death and Dying. New York, NY: Macmillan Maslow, A.H. (1970). Motivation and personality. City, St: Harper & Row Publishers. Piaget, J. & Inhelder, B. (1969). The psychology of the child. New York, NY: Basic Books Schultz, D. & Schultz, S. (2005). Theories of personality. 8th ed. City, State: Thomson-Wadsworth Skinner, B.F. (1971). Beyond freedom and dignity. New York, NY: Alfred A. Knopf, Inc. Read More

 

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