The importance of inner growth with advancing age

28 October 2025 Christian Schikarski 68 views

In the autumn of 2024, the CARE group Age Culture and Geriatric Medicine started working and has since published its activity reports on the specialist online portal Anthromedics. Some of the group’s questions relate to connections between childhood and advanced age.

What does old age mean in our society? In traditional societies it was thought highly of. People sought and respected the wise counsel of their elders, but this rarely happens today. It can be like a ray of light when an older person inspires modesty or even respect. The question why this is no longer the norm can be illuminated from an anthroposophical perspective.

Given the views people have today in general we often implicitly, and possibly wrongly, assume that human beings are fully developed and that their evolution is biologically complete. At best, certain bodily functions can be optimized or replaced with artificial prosthetics, but evolution or development in old age? What would that consist in? The ability to develop ideals in geriatric medicine depends however on the idea of continued evolution.

Making full use of the I’s potential

According to Rudolf Steiner this development is not complete. While, through long periods of time, physical and mental-spiritual development went hand in hand up to an advanced age, the ability to develop in spirit and soul has been decreasing in more recent times. This means that these developmental processes are becoming independent of the physical ones and come ever sooner to a ‘natural’ end.1

Human evolution today therefore happens mostly in the soul life during the course of a biography. Today we have the possibility around the 28th year of life to either develop our life of soul and spirit through individual initiative or to settle with the inner maturation that can be achieved up to the 28th year.

From an anthroposophical point of view certain creative and supportive forces that used to support us up to that point begin to withdraw, which means that any further development of the ‘I’ up to an older age can be modest. The potential of the ‘I’ is not exhausted, the chance for self-education is not seized and people reach the age of 60 but seem to be in their late twenties inwardly. From the age of 28, people should therefore take hold of their inner impulses and bring them to expression. Developing an eye for these social phenomena can be a valuable tool in practice.

From an anthroposophical point of view this ability for inner development will, as part of evolution, gradually move forward over the next centuries, which means that today we sometimes even observe this ‘developmental endpoint’ in the 27th year.[1]

Consequences of neglected development

What does this mean for our understanding of an age culture and geriatric medicine? We will meet people who were unable to unfold their biographical potential after the age of 28, or even 27. This can involve ‘forgotten’ ideals, values or life motives. As a result they may not be able to radiate maturity and wisdom in later life. On the surface they may therefore appear uninteresting to the younger generation and they may be treated unkindly. Generally speaking, this is sadly the prevailing attitude to old age in central-European society today.

Geriatric medicine means learning to understand these ‘obscured’ aspects of a biography and to look behind a person’s neediness in order to empathically sense the possibly difficult life conditions that prevented them from unfolding their full potential, which may be due to severe hardships experienced in life or transgenerational trauma. Embracing this attitude can enhance our will to help.

Above all, it can help us to develop the attitude and intention to inspire inner development in every elderly person who needs care, according to their individual potential. This should also be the reason for the rehabilitative approach to old age that generally aims at the kind of functional independence that can delay the need for geriatric care.

A happy childhood may result in a healthy old age

This thought relates to the individual biography. Life circumstances in childhood and youth are reflected at an older age both mentally and physically. A well-known example from research is the long-running Nun Study[2] that has shown how a happy childhood is a strong prognostic factor for a healthy old age.

Conversely, such a conclusion raises considerable questions regarding health in general and health in traumatized societies. Rudolf Steiner pointed at such relationships more than a hundred years ago,[3] but they have hardly been considered by mainstream medicine. Much perseverance and appropriate research designs are required to provide the necessary scientific evidence.[4] While there is not yet enough such research, indications in support of it are on the increase.

It is important to introduce such points of view into today’s geriatric medicine and general understanding because they are essential prerequisites for social change. Early childhood and school education are health factors that affect a person’s entire life.

Caregiving in old age therefore depends on what happened in education around 70 to 80 years earlier and it can imply making up for damage or neglect inflicted decades ago.

Separating age from sickness

The image of a deficient old age is widespread and often the cause of unkindness towards elderly people. Loveless behaviour needs to be addressed today in geriatric care as part of the violence prevention schemes that are introduced in institutions in order to ensure quality of care. When we understand that human life is a continuous path of development, we have the foundation for providing effective support at the various stages in life.

There are of course healthy elderly people whose resources are so strong that they remain independent to a ripe old age. They constitute a special resource in society. It is those who need care and medical provision early on because they lose their independence due to chronic illness, addiction, forgetfulness and other health problems who are seen as problematic for society.

It is important to separate old age from illness, both conceptually and in practice. While it is true that illness is more prevalent in old age, the two are fundamentally different.