Psychoanalysis of over-sixty patients: Its coming of age.
Item
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Title
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Psychoanalysis of over-sixty patients: Its coming of age.
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Identifier
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AAI8820912
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identifier
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8820912
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Creator
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Wilk, Sondra Ellen.
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Contributor
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Adviser: Laurence J. Gould
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Date
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1988
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Language
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English
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Publisher
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City University of New York.
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Subject
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Psychology, Clinical
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Abstract
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The aging of the population has focused attention on Western culture's negative attitudes toward the elderly. Psychoanalysts too have begun to examine their beliefs about this age group and psychoanalytic treatment.;This study examined the beliefs of six psychoanalysts each of whom had been treating patients over the age of sixty for several years. The purpose of the study was to learn as much as possible about the analysts' perceptions of psychoanalytic work with their over-sixty patients as compared with their over-thirty patients. A semi-structured in-depth interview was used to encourage the analysts to think about their work freely. To avoid the ongoing controversy over the definitive interpretation of "psychoanalysis" the subjects were permitted to define psychoanalysis or psychoanalytic psychotherapy of the elderly relative to their understanding of and use of this modality with their other patients.;The major finding was that these six subjects do productive psychoanalytic work with their over-sixty patients with little or no modification of their usual methods of treatment. They treat the older patient "psychoanalytically" in very much the same manner that they treat younger patients. Widespread negative societal prejudice toward the elderly did not affect the decision to treat nor did it impede the treatment itself.
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Type
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dissertation
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Source
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PQT Legacy CUNY.xlsx
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degree
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Ph.D.
