Growing Old. The Process of Disengagement: By Elaine Cumming and William E. Henry. New York: Basic Books, Inc., 1961. 293 pp.

In the last eighty years, the percentage of people in America over sixty-five has increased from 3.4 percent to 9.5 percent. Elaine Cumming, a sociologist with the New York State Department of Mental Hygiene, William E. Henry, Professor of Human Development and Psychology at the University of Chicago, and their associates give a detailed, empirical study of a sample of older people. As theoretical orientation they present the concept of 'disengagement', which is the ego's special function of adaptation to the aging process within the person; they discuss the ego's relationship to the environment and the reaction of that environment toward the older person. The thesis is well formulated and well documented by Ernest Damianopoulos.

The excellent character of this book does not hide the fact that it is not a psychoanalytic report or investigation, a fact that becomes especially evident in the chapter, The Very Old Ones, by Mary Lou Parlagreco. There is an almost irresistible challenge for an analytic team to join this already well-coördinated team of experts in order to deepen the research with analytic methods of investigation and insight into the psychodynamics of growing old.