Promoting Adaptive Living in the Aged.

摘要

The psychiatric aspects of aging are explored in an edited transcription of the proceedings of a 1-day meeting sponsored by the Jewish Home and Hospital for Aged at Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The keynote address stated that aging is a process rather than an acute crisis, and the aged are the end product of this process. Three major sources of suffering are examined as concerns of the psychiatrist: reality, civilization, and the intropsychic mechanism. Reality, in the form of illness, is more difficult in later life. It may come with greater frequency and the rebound from it is slower. It is more often a complex illness rather than a single occurrence. The poor economic status of the aged aggravates this reality, and the gradual separation from meaningful others produces a depression or depressive affect. Civilization, or societal living, causes suffering by its demands for participation by its members. Old has come to be equated with useless, unworthy. The culture is oriented toward the child and the future and is hostile to the aged. The elderly bring to later life the unresolved conflicts in relationship to dependence versus independence. This intropsychic mechanism involves the family struggle for control, sexuality, and the self image. A panel discussion expands on applications of these principles through the use of case histories accompanied by closed circuit television interviews of two nursing home residents. The participants are listed and the program is provided.