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THE WOLF MAN is one of the first and oldest of all psychoanalytic patients now living, and the one about whose life we psychoanalysts know most. Therefore it seems that what we can learn about his attitude toward growing older can contribute something to psychoanalytic considerations of old age. In the thirty-five years I have known the Wolf Man, he has always seemed to me old, and yet in another way he has always seemed young. The tragedies of his life, his frequent depressions, and his pessimism have made him seem older than his years. But his appearance has been, and is, that of a younger man, and so is his conversation when he is animated and interested. Now, at seventy-six, his sensory perceptions and mental powers are intact. My husband, who saw the Wolf Man in Vienna in the summer of 1962, described him to friends as "so young, so intelligent and interesting. And a handsome man."
In March, 1963, I wrote to the Wolf Man asking him certain questions about his attitude toward growing older, and requesting his permission to publish this material. I shall quote his long answer word for word. As was to be foreseen, his answers to my questions do not tell us as much as the spontaneous remarks I invited him to make.