PSYCHOTHERAPY OF THE AGED

Supportive psychotherapy for the aged is currently arousing considerable interest. Partly, this is the result of the great increase in the number of aged persons. Confronted with a group of people who have none of the creative emotional resources and often none of the intellectual resources needed for intensive psychotherapy, and who cannot afford prolonged therapy financially or in terms of the remaining span of life, psychiatrists are seeking techniques of brief psychotherapy for the aged. The concept of adaptational psychodynamics, as formulated in the papers of Rado (1) and Kardiner (2), furnishes a useful theoretical framework for such psychotherapy. It emphasizes the human being's lifelong tendency to regress to dependency when under sufficient stress-probably a result of the biologic necessity for prolonged dependency in childhood. This technique is well suited for direct application to psychotherapy for the aged.