Inhibition of individual psychological development through life phases

It is commonly accepted that a person's life traverses several stages as it goes from infancy to old age. Each stage has a separate reality, with certain difficulties and compensations and certain characteristic experiences. In earlier societies, these stages in life were recognized and catered for. For example, rites of puberty would take place at a certain stage in a child's life. It was also the case that people of all stages in life would be in contact with people of all other stages. But in recent times, contact with the entire cycle of life has become less and less available to each person. In place of natural communities with a balanced life cycle, there are now retirement villages, dormitory suburbs, teenage cultures, ghettos of unemployed, college towns, industrial parks etc. Under such conditions, people's chances for solving the conflicts that come with each stage in the life cycle are slim.