In this article, some of the developmental issues that are confronted in the later phases of life are discussed. I describe the inevitable (a) reawakening of the internalisation of earlier dependent state, and (b) identifications with the dying experience of key other persons. I show how both points may cloud external reality and give rise to symptoms.

I also dwell on how the difficulty, if not impossibility, for the unconscious to know about nothingness (‘not experiencing’) means that the concept of death cannot be fully grasped. The study of any individual's anticipated ‘life after death’ is therefore potentially of great clinical significance and of relevance to the provision of care for the elderly.