In this book's prologue, the author tells the reader what led her to write the book. Danielle Quinodoz is a Training and Supervising Analyst in the Swiss Psychoanalytic Society who, as an analyst in private practice and a consultant in the geriatric unit at the University Hospital of Geneva, has met, treated, and supervised the treatment of many elderly people. She has published several papers focused on the elderly patient that “bear witness to what older people can help us discover” (p. xiii).

The appearance of this book signals that Quinodoz has herself attained old age. She wanted to write about old age and the elderly patient as she experienced old age herself, rather than as a somewhat detached clinical observer. Apparently, her colleagues in the geriatric unit, and the