Social Aging, Disorganization, and Loss of Choice

The social life of an individual exhibits the phenomenon of aging, and the latter has characteristics which are in many ways analogous to physiological aging. Evidence is presented to support the thesis that the loss of choice of the things which a person can do is the most significant measure of aging, whether social or physiological. This loss of choice represents aging only if it is irreversible. The irreversibility is usually a consequence of the fact that a great number of unrelated causes contribute to the loss of choice, and an individual's ability to take corrective action is over-whelmed by the large number and diversity of the causes.