The way we understand old age is very different from the way we actually experience it ourselves as we grow old, and this distinction exists in all cultures and throughout all historical periods.

Old age thus becomes, by definition, a kind of criterion for every culture and every era, especially prominent in today’s social structure. The term “new old age” emerges from the texts of this book, founded on the multifaceted approach of philosophy, psychoanalysis, art, and history.

However, the heart of the book lies in the experiences and memories of those of us who are experiencing old age today and those who experienced it before us. That is why this is a political book—it speaks of the changes necessary to remove oppression, heteronomy, and the exclusions that affect elderly men and women, and, indeed, these are exercised in different ways for each.

Social perception and welfare are being redesigned, epistemology is being restructured, geriatrics is following new paths, but in this book Chloe Kolyri argues that something much more significant is needed, something that will affect the destiny of our species, among all other entities.

Many old men and women show the way on this journey: Spinoza, Hölderlin, Freud, Lacan, Ferenczi, de Beauvoir, Luce Irigaray, Butler, Hiroshige, Michelangelo, Arendt, and others. Because the lucky ones grow old…