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Following coronary by-pass surgery entailing considerable medical scrutiny and stimulating much introspection and self-analysis, the editor evolved the idea of asking selected colleagues 'to prepare what I now call "sectorial autobiographies", with the focus on their own ageing processes' (p. xi). Sixteen essays were received in response to this appeal for baseline data both about growing old personally and how this impacted on their work with elderly patients. It was hoped that professionals would be able to use their own self-observational powers to shed light on this important, neglected area. Though specific questions designed as guidelines were provided, the results vary widely as to the degree of adherence to the assigned task as well as the style and focus in which the material is presented.
Some, such as the first essay jointly written by the now deceased Sam Atkin and his son Adam, are poignantly revealing. Father and son document the struggles of an analyst in his late eighties against the advances of Parkinsonism. It consists of stories interspersed with actual journal entries, in which the former reveal astute, secondary process functioning and the latter, by contrast, reveal more regressed, fantasy-laden, affectively-charged commentary even on what he has written in a scientific mode. Another analyst chronicles his enforced retirement and his attempts to cope with the narcissistic blow and sense of loss encountered, for which his efforts at self-analysis, though valiant, did not suffice.
The essays tended to be of interest in the degree to which they were personal in content, dealing with actual experiences and feelings. At the other end of the continuum were several didactic, over-intellectualised attempts to be scientific as if for publication in a gerontological review, and thus almost devoid of any personal observations. Several of the respondents took the opportunity to update their curriculum vitae, presenting a chronological account of thei