Is there a “Primal Urge” to Withdraw in Retirement — and More So As Death Nears?

Driving home last evening, I had one of those “driveway” moments, where you don’t want to shut off the car — and thus the radio — because a program on NPR is so compelling. 

This time it was the Invisibilia story of Iggy Ignatius, born in India, but living in Florida. He decided to create a retirement community that looked like home, with low buildings, a courtyard, Bollywood movies, lots of Indian food, and lots of … Indians.  At first, his creative timing seemed all wrong, as he was opening the doors in 2008, on the threshold of what turned out to be a deep recession, hitting many Florida housing ventures hard.  But, in fact, he sold out the first condo wing almost immediately, and success has apparently continued.  Iggy has a theory for the popularity of his Indian retirement community:

“And at that time, he thinks, it’s beyond your control. No matter who you are, you’ll experience a deep primal desire to withdraw, like a salmon swimming upstream to the place of its birth to spawn and die. ‘I think that is an animal instinct which we as human beings seem to have.'”

Hmmm. I’m not sure spawning salmon are experiencing the same motivations as elderly individuals, regardless of ethnicity.  But, the story continued with a potential science-based explanation:

“Iggy is absolutely right, according to Jeff Greenberg, a professor of psychology at the University of Arizona. If you raise the specter of death in a person’s mind, he says, Christians like Christians better; Italians like Italians better. Even Germans, who are usually pretty lukewarm about other Germans, if you get them to contemplate their own mortality, suddenly they really like Germans….”

Thus, if true, there is a potential dark side to a “return to kind,” both in terms of the subconscious fears that may drive it, and the impact on community and society.

Does this make sense to you?  To read or listen to the whole story, go to “Being With People Like You Offers Comfort Against Death’s Chill.”