Work with Older People: A Bibliography

This bibliography is based on one compiled for a specialist project with older people run by WPF Therapy. This introduction gives an overall description of the references chosen and includes an elaboration of some publications which the author has found particularly helpful. (These are shown with an asterisk within the bibliography.) The references are based on psychodynamic theory with application to various settings and ways of working with older people published in the UK and the USA. They fall into broad sub-categories, mainly based on psychotherapy and counselling work with individuals. There is also a substantial number of references from psychiatry, including work with both in- and out-patients, describing work with patients with different stages of dementia and organic disorders as well as those with different levels of mental health difficulties. Difficulties in diagnosis and treatment are thought about, such as the distinction between depression and dementia. References for working with couples, with groups and with families are included in separate sections as are those concerned with other therapies: music, art and dance. Many of the papers address issues of sexuality and intimacy in older age, including those of homosexual/gay men and lesbians.

Historically, the literature begins with Freud (1905a) who famously expressed scepticism about the potential for work with older people: ‘when near or above the age of fifty, the elasticity of mental processes on which treatment depends is, as a rule, lacking: old people are no longer educable’ and again ‘… the mass of material to be dealt with would prolong the duration of the treatment indefinitely’ (p. 264).

In his paper of 1919, Karl Abraham gave a different view based on his experience: ‘In my psycho-analytic practice I have treated a number of chronic neuroses in persons of over forty and even fifty years of age’ (p. 313). He goes on: ‘To my surprise a considerable number of them reacted very favourably to th