Here is one of the more significant emergent areas in gerontology. The basic thesis is that people often must \u201cplow under\u201d some of their creative potential in order to fulfill their obligations in the family and the workplace.
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This chronic suppression of interests and talents may contribute to a vague sense of dissatisfaction. Despite health, financial stability, and supportive relationships, they feel somehow unfulfilled and thwarted. This might be termed the anxiety of the unfulfilled.
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One specific theory has been offered by David Gutmann (1987), whose work was mentioned briefly earlier. His cross-cultural research seems to support Jung\u2019s conception that females and males each tend to suppress the other-gender side of their nature throughout the first half of their lives. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The challenge of the second half of life, then, is to actualize the other side of our natures and, in general, open ourselves to the creative potentials that previously lay dormant. <\/p>\n\n\n\n