Psychotherapy for older people has thrived despite the now famous
statement by Sigmund Freud that older people are not amenable to
psychoanalysis. He considered anyone over the age of 50 years as lacking
“the elasticity of the mental processes on which treatment depends... old
people are not educatable” (Freud, 1905). Thankfully, such overt ageism
has largely been overcome, and psychotherapy is offered to older people
and their carers. Psychotherapy covers the whole range of psychiatric
problems, from adjustment disorders to Alzheimer’s disease (see Box 17.2).
Dynamics
Psychotherapy is largely based upon a dynamic view of psychiatric (and
some physical) illnesses. Although the word dynamic suggests activity
where psychiatric symptoms arise, conflict often leads to a stalemate.
Such a conflict might be between the drive to assert oneself and to make
no trouble. The object of psychotherapy is to resolve the conflict and,
in doing so, relieve symptoms and help the person function more
effectively. This is achieved through words exchanged between the patient
and the therapist, and the relationship which forms between them.
Dynamic factors are important in old age psychiatry. Pitt (1982) identified
dynamic factors in three-quarters of consecutive referrals to an old age
psychiatric service.
Transference
The dynamic view is that disturbed relationships, past and present,
contribute to illness. Psychotherapy seeks to improve these relationships
by counselling, support and the use of transference. Transference occurs
when the patient reacts to the therapist as a key figure from their past,
such as a parent, sibling, child or spouse. The therapist can use transference
by helping the patient become aware of subconscious feelings to these
important figures. Although the patients are usually older than their
therapists, this does not prevent them from being regarded as parent
figures, as well as child (or grandchild) figures.
Dependency
One dynamic factor which may occur more commonly in later life is
dependency. This may occur, for example, in people emotionally deprivedPsychological treatments 267
in early life, who coped well as adults but in older age fear being neglected
and unloved as they see their useful role slipping away. Goldfarb (1965)
described the frantic search for help from a strong parent figure, which
is frustrated because the demands are too clamorous.
In a colluding partnership, usually husband and wife but sometimes
child and parent, one is seen by the other as strong but each is, in fact,
dependent on the other. The ‘strong’ partner preserves an illusion of
mastery through the weaker’s reliance on them. A husband who finds a
raison d’être in retirement in caring for his sick wife, may be threatened
when she requires help from doctors. He may have a vested interest in
her invalidism.
In these cases the therapist tries to establish a supportive relationship
to meet the dependency needs of the patient, without being taken over,
or turning the patient into a child. For some very old patients, supportive
therapy may mean an involvement for life.
Life review
When the recital of symptoms becomes tedious and repetitive, it can be
useful to move away from the illness to a consideration of the patient as