My Book Pick: Le vieillissement psychique: Que sais-je?
Aichi Insurance Physicians’ Newspaper
November 25, 2021
Benoît Verdon
When I meet exceptionally healthy older people who calmly say, “There is nothing left in life that I wish I had done,” I feel both admiration and envy. Aging and death are inevitable facts of life. Even healthcare professionals who have treated patients with dementia may begin to fear developing it themselves as they enter advanced old age and come to terms with the end of life.
The Maturing Mind: Psychoanalysis and Aging offers valuable insights for those confronting physical and mental decline and beginning to consider retirement from active life. The Japanese translator chose the expression “maturation in old age” rather than simply “the psychology of aging,” perhaps recognizing that it captures something more essential than merely finding purpose in growing old.
The book explores the physical, psychological, and social dimensions of aging, including emotional struggles associated with bodily and sexual decline, changing social roles, clinical practice, and care for family members and caregivers. As the preface explains, it seeks to help not only professionals from different disciplines and educational backgrounds but also the general public take an interest in the inner lives of older people.
Drawing on numerous clinical cases and a wide range of classical works, including those of Freud, the book is persuasive, richly informed, and deeply engaging.
“To grow old is to confront the fact that one is fragmented, imperfect in many ways, wounded, and transformed” (p. 78).
This thoughtful integration of neuroscience and psychoanalysis offers especially accessible insights for those entering old age. Yet even maturity eventually gives way to decay. I believe this is a book everyone should read before cognitive decline sets in—not only specialists in dementia, but people of all ages.
