Introduction & Chapter 1

This book seems fascinating to me for multiple reasons, one of these being Dr. Terman’s study and how he followed the lives of hundreds of people from the time they were children up until their deaths. A few years ago, I watched the movie “Boyhood,” which follows the life of a boy for 12 years, as he grows up. Dr. Terman’s study reminded me of this film and of how much a person can change within a decade—or a lifetime, in the case of this unique study. I look forward to reading the explanations behind common myths throughout this book, such as the idea that worrying is bad for your health, which I have been led to believe my entire life.

In Chapter 1, I was shocked to read that it took so long for doctors to discover the importance of sterile operating fields and antiseptics. This is something that seems as though it should be common sense for me, but I am sure people will be saying the same thing about future discoveries hundreds of years from now. I appreciate Dr. Terman’s interests spanning from the moral beliefs to the physical characteristics of his subjects, because it shows that his study is not very biased. I believe the book’s focus on Terman’s study will show us a wide range of characteristics we can consider, when observing the actual health psychology of the Longevity Project.

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