Part II Commentary: The Carer and the Cared: A Cultural-Psychological Elaboration

This commentary is written to keep the levels of societal and personal looks at old age caregiving separate—yet interrelated. The societal level—reflected through persons’ accumulated care preferences in a population—provides the range of opportunities as these are understood at the time—for various versions of care in the old age in the future. These versions represent various possible life courses. Each individual decision about selecting between various possibilities is deeply ambivalent at the psychological level. It entails reorganization of family relations, and establishing new social roles of the care giver and care recipient. The CARER and CARED relationship is one of mutual dependence—one cannot exist without the other. The exposure of adolescents to old-age care tasks may prepare them for entrance in the principal carer role later in the life course. Cultural psychologies relate differentially with the older age care—I elaborate the role of social representation theory and dialogical self theory in the settings of elder care.