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This volume contains a number of poignant essays by a sage group of older psychoanalysts. The first of these, "On Growing Old," was
written by the late Samuel Atkin and his son, Adam. It is largely concerned with the elder Atkin's struggles with physical illness. He notes with pleasure the modifications in his ego structure which he attained while adapting to his limitations. He further speaks of his capacity to learn new skills, while commenting on the rigidity in his perception of his body image despite the deterioration of his physical state. Another observation, echoed by many of the contributors to this volume, and one with which I heartily concur, is that ego development continues throughout the life cycle and does not stop with the closure of adolescence. Atkin further suggests that reminiscing about the past is a way of mourning for one's lost self. The accompanying piece, "Elegy for a Widow," by Edith Atkin, details her struggles with depressive affect after her husband's death. It is a model for understanding the variety of losses an individual undergoes when a lifelong mate is lost.
Bernard Bandler's "The Aging Process" also emphasizes the idea of emotional growth in later life. He sees the issue of retirement, so often mandated in various fields at a specific age (say 65), as a "dress rehearsal for death." He describes how a brush with death mobilized in him a flood of vivid childhood memories and existentially intensified his desire to complete a work on female writers he was immersed in.
In "Perspective at Seventy-Seven of Prejudice, Conflict, and Aloneness," Siegfried Berthelsdorf speaks of retirement as a graduation into the elder age category and of the importance of the function of reminiscence for the aged. Virginia Clower, in "Aging in a Mirror," notes that her close contact with aging relatives in her youth gave her a tolerance for "progressive decrepitude." She observes that early development in the individual is incremental, wherea