The book starts out with a discussion of the unsatisfying state of the art and what generally is needed in order to bring theory and certain empirical findings into harmony. The theory of gerotranscendence is then developed as an answer to this plea, starting out as a tentative outline in chapter 2, and followed in chapter 3 by a qualitative specification based on firsthand, in-depth interviews with individuals of a mature age who themselves have experienced the individual development in life, which we have come to call gerotranscendence.