A group counseling experience with the very old

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Abstract
The authors describe a group counseling experience using a modified remotivation and structured reminiscence format with six elderly female nursing home residents (ages 85—99). Much has happened in the area of group counseling for the elderly since Freud (1905) and Abraham (1949) espoused the futility of and lack of value inherent in psychotherapy of any kind for the aged. According to these analysts, the development of insight, the critical factor involved in psychoanalytic personality change, was not likely to occur in the elderly due to their presupposed, rigidity and interpersonal withdrawal. This myth that the elderly are resistant to change, combined with many therapists' lack of experience with this age group and a consequent lack of familiarity with relevant treatment modalities, seems to have kept counseling of the elderly at a “developmental standstill” for years.

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