title: Older adults and psychoanalytic treatment: it's about time.
abstract: It has become increasingly apparent that older adults may not only benefit from psychoanalysis and psychodynamic psychotherapy but may be particularly well suited to such treatment. Clinical evidence to support this is presented, including discussion of the successful psychoanalysis of a woman in her seventies. An overview of the psychoanalytic literature indicates that psychoanalytic beliefs about the feasibility of treating older patients have always been favorable, but have had difficulty gaining traction. The modern psychoanalytic literature is compatible with extra-analytic studies of aging that provide further rationale for the potential usefulness of psychoanalytically oriented interventions in the elderly population.
authors.affiliation: Clinical Professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences at the David Geffen School of Medicine, University of California at Los Angeles.
authors.forename: Daniel A
authors.initials: DA
authors.lastname: Plotkin
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000375:Aging / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D006803:Human Development / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D011369:Professional-Patient Relations; D011575:Psychoanalytic Therapy / Q000379:methods*; D014167:Transference, Psychology; D016896:Treatment Outcome