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Editor George H. Pollock invited “older colleagues” (p. ix) to write about their personal aging experiences and to note those changes apparent to them at different periods of their lives. He hoped that these accounts would yield valuable insights and be helpful to colleagues of all ages, to those confronting their own aging and to those working with older patients. Volume 1 was
published in 1992 and was reviewed in this journal . In his introduction to Volume 2, Pollock alerts us to the publication of Volume 3 in the near future.
I found Volume 1 of limited value, in contrast, Volume 2 is a “must read” for all colleagues. For the most part, the contributors have assumed their task with enthusiasm, direction, and honesty. Some communicate to the reader that carrying out their task has been a self-exploration, even a psychotherapeutic experience. A wide range of affective experience is successfully communicated by many contributors: from despondency to euphoria, disappointment to self-satisfaction, uncertainty to self-confidence, resignation to hopefulness. It should not surprise the reader that psychiatrists and psychoanalysts do not spontaneously or comfortably write about themselves. It is to each contributor's credit that, once begun, the process moved right along.
Until this last sentence was written, I had overlooked the fact that all contributors to Volume 2 are male. This was not the case in Volume 1; five of 16 contributors were women, and what they had to say proved significant, highlighting male-female differences. No explanation for the exclusion of women has been provided by Pollock; it is to be hoped Volume 3 will include older professional women's points of view.
In all, 18 contributors are included in Volume 2. Twelve are identified as psychoanalysts. The remaining are well recognized for their work and are prominent psychiatrists holding views compatible with those of psychoanalysis. Two of the contributors, Stuart M. Finch and Martin Grotjahn, have si