[Revival of recollections of the distant past in the aged as a precondition for the development of shift of situation into the past in mental disorders of old age].
Reminiscences of the past were studied in 50 mentally normal women aged 72-92 years. Two types of reminiscences were identified: review, reevaluation of the past life in 13 and spontaneous reminiscences of the long past in 32 subjects. The latter were characterized by fragmentality, sensual vividness, not infrequently by emotional neutrality. They were in fair correlation with the age and the level of mental activity. It was proved that the realization of old mnemonic material becomes biologically easier in old age. It is postulated that this property of senile psyche may serve as a prerequisite for the development of the pathological symptom, a shift of the situation into the past, which is constant in senile dementia and transient in other psychopathological states in advanced age.
D000368:Aged / Q000523:psychology*; D003704:Dementia / Q000523:psychology; D005260:Female; D006707:Homes for the Aged; D006801:Humans; D008568:Memory; D001523:Mental Disorders / Q000523:psychology*
Ozhivlenie vospominaniĭ davno proshedshego u pozhilykh kak predposylka dlia razvitiia sdviga situatsii v proshloe pri psikhicheskikh zabolevaniiakh pozdnego vozrasta.