You do not currently have permission to view the full text for this document. Please sign in to an account with an active subscription or contact support.
Fear of death and longing for death in the elderly: An existential psychoanalytic treatment perspective
Terror often operates more on an unconscious than a conscious level. Six questions can assist the psychoanalytic therapist to identify fear of death in the elderly and bring it into the realm of treatment. When elderly people long for death because they no longer identify with the person they have become, a change of approach is warranted. In any case, the existential psychoanalytic therapist aims to help the elderly cope with the double awareness of life and death. This duality does not ask for a solution; the patient primarily wants to be seen and heard. Thus, connection is established. The complex attitudes towards death at a late age demand an extension of Erikson's development theory with a ninth phase: gerotranscendence.