• Chapter 1 Introduces the subject of age and suffering. It reports on the literature from several disciplines regarding suffering.Chapter 2Introduces cases to illustrate suffering as a form of cultural communication that is spoken through the body, through identity, and through narrative. Chapter 3Explores how gender shapes informants' experience of suffering, the way suffering is expressed, and discussion about it in the process of the interview. Chapter 4Acknowledges that embodied pain is a significant component in the experience of suffering in later life. Chapter 5Explores social suffering because even private, individual experiences of suffering occur in a social milieu. Chapter 6Uses cases to examine the uniqueness with which each informant coped with suffering. Chapter 7Discusses the morality imputed to the experience of suffering. In part, this morality is revealed through the causes respondents attribute to their suffering. Chapter 8Examines three often-used metaphors for suffering. They are: suffering as a threat or attack, suffering as injustice, and suffering as loss. Chapter 9Talks about the activity of suffering. Activities give compensatory meaning to an elder's life. An important activity of suffering is to tell an engaged listener a story about it. Chapter 10Is the conclusion of the book. It asks the question: Who is the self that suffers?

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