FROM BEING TO APPEARANCE: AGING, SELF-IMAGE, AND THE PSYCHOLOGICAL IMPACTS OF THE REVERSAL OF AESTHETIC STANDARDS IN CONTEMPORARY SOCIETY

Abstract

This theoretical review article proposes a historical-philosophical and psychological analysis of aging and self-image in the context of contemporary society. Starting from a genealogical reading of aesthetics — understood here through Baruch de Spinoza as that which pleases and therefore constitutes beauty in each era — the work examines the transformations of social value references throughout history: from the valorization of being, centered on the accumulation of knowledge and wisdom; to the valorization of having, inaugurated by industrial-capitalist logic; to the current condition marked by the imperative of appearing, theorized by Guy Debord (1967) in The Society of the Spectacle. Throughout this journey, aging, once associated with epistemic authority and social prestige, comes to be experienced as aesthetic and symbolic deficit, amplifying ageism and imposing unprecedented challenges to the self-image and mental health of individuals who age in the digital era. The work also draws on Zygmunt Bauman (2001), Karl Marx (1848) and contributions from Developmental Psychology and Social Psychology to support the thesis that healthy aging presupposes not only clinical interventions but the recognition of the elderly as guardians of accumulated knowledge and as indispensable subjects for civilizational continuity. It is concluded that the inversion of generational references represents a symptom of a broader social pathology whose effects on the self-image, self-esteem, and social belonging of the elderly demand urgent responses in the field of Psychology.