“I'm too Old for …” looking into a self-Sabotage rhetoric and its counter-narratives in an Italian setting

Abstract The aim of this study was to analyze a narrative amply shared in the social and cultural spheres that makes people tend to see themselves as ‘too old for …’ (TOF) making personal life choices or following up their projects. This social construction risks preventing people from taking action to achieve their goals and develop their potential for self-fulfillment, with negative consequences on a personal level. Seventy-eight episodic interviews were conducted with adults of various ages to shed light on the recurrent topics with which the TOF narrative tends to be associated. Taking a pragmatic stance, the counter-narratives available for its deconstruction were also elicited and explored. The results emerging from a content analysis indicate that the TOF narrative is associated with different topics, partly depending on an individual's age and gender, while the counter-narratives identified by respondents hinge on several ideas and dominant beliefs that can be classified as belonging to three essential types. The implications of the investigation are discussed, also with reference to problems of social relevance such as those relating to the NEET (not in education, employment or training) issue, and to the social isolation of the elderly.