Geriatric Psychotherapy: Essays in Clinical Practice and Counseling Psychology

Based on my professional assessment of the present state of theory and practice in psychotherapy as relates to the care and counseling of the post-retirement population in America, I have over the last few years concentrated much of my research and publishing in the field of geriatric psychotherapy. It is my conviction that the leading schools of psychotherapy, both classical and modern, have too quickly terminated their application and relevance to the growing number of post-retired individuals in need of pastoral care and counseling. The classical schools, it is understandable, were developed during a time when individuals did not live much beyond retirement age. The longevity of western populations during the time of Freud, Adler, Jung, and Frankl were not much beyond 65 years of age and even from Erikson the Sullivan, few Americans lived beyond 68 years with a small exceptional percentage. The development of psychotherapeutic theory and practice, therefore, addressed childhood, adolescent, young adulthood and family life, ending by and large with retirement. Even Erikson failed to move substantially into the post-retirement years and the psychopathology of the elderly. However, it is my belief based on nearly 50 years of study, research, and teaching that even the modern schools - Horney, Klein, Perls, Berne, Maslow, Rogers, Fromm, Ellis, and Beck - have fallen victim to the inclination to too quickly terminate their theory and practice to these childhood-to-retirement categories and therefore, by default, have more or less failed to substantially address the post-retirement population which is rapidly and exponentially expanding. Indeed, whereas 50 years ago one expected to live a year or two beyond retirement, today a massive number of individuals living in western societies are living 20 to 30 years beyond retirement.