Psychodynamics of Aging: Creativity, Reminiscing, and Dying. Sidney Levin and Ralph J. Kahana (Eds.). New York:  International Universities Press, 1967.

This book, the third sponsored by the Boston Society for Gerontologic Psychiatry, is in three parts: Part 1 contains lengthy papers which were presented at a 1964 symposium, Part 2 is a discussion of these papers, and Part 3 is a survey of the relevant literature from 1961 to 1964, supplementing previous work. In the symposium itself, the first papers, “Destiny of Creativity in Later Life,” by a Washington school psychiatrist, is good reading, a worthwhile observation by a broad, interesting human being. The second paper, “Reminiscing in the Aged and Adaptational Response,” is much more tightly psychoanalytic and as such has certain limitations for the reader who is interested in a broad discussion of the topic in general. The third paper, “Denial as a Social Act,” is a scholarly psychoanalytic study of the dynamics but has similar restrictions in its reader interest. The fourth paper, “The Physician and His Patient Who Is Dying,” is a psychoanalyst's observations on work in a tumor clinic. The previous volume apparently set the stage for the breadth and intensity of his examination of a few cases seen in psychoanalytic therapy. His somewhat pained explanatory essay is ponderous. He does not discuss the interdisciplinary aspects of the care of the dying in a useful way, but certainly his essay would add to the understanding of the dynamics.

Part 2, the discussion, is again a detailed interlocking set of interactional exchanges in a rather standard psychoanalytic discipline with much theory and data to back each opposing argument. Like theological discussions it is exciting to the expert but somewhat abstruse to the rest of us. Part 3, the survey of the literature, is excellent. It contains brief, precise, descriptive summaries of studies in clinic, hospital testing and research laboratories and treatment programs.