Clinical Considerations for Mature Clients Part 2 by Charlie Graham

Click here to read part 1.

Part II:

Carl Jung has said that the goal of aging is the path to the goal.  In the alchemical process of the psyche there is much calcinato, heating things up.  This forces one to deal with issues with the body now – because there may not be a later.  Denial has worked in the aging person’s life for a long time, but there is no more hiding.  One must deal with the issues that have been repressed or ignored.  One of these conditions that may have led one to denial is the example of the inflated state of ego-Self identity sometimes called the provisional life, or “the Peter Pan Principle” of a failure to grow up and confront life’s challenges responsibly (ie admit oneself  to a drug rehab center).  It also denotes an attitude that is innocent of responsibility towards the circumstantial facts of reality as though these facts were being provided for.    Puer is the concept of the eternal youth, waltzing through life with no ownership for the pain caused to others or the pain inflicted on him.  The final stage of the integration process must occur before the border crossing into life after death.

We all want to be connected to our family.  It is difficult, if not impossible to have a good relationship with our families when acting out in our addictions or alcoholism.  The ego, or our conscious state, prefers stability or a balance in the status quo – homeostasis.  The collective unconscious is that part of our psyche that has been consistent throughout the ages and from culture to culture.  This can be the rites of passage we all must progress through, including the aging process and preparation for death.  Our personal unconscious refers to that part of our psyche that we have repressed or shoved down into the realm of daydreams, dreams, or thoughts and feelings we have yet to process or integrate into our conscious, or ego.  The shadow is counter to the ego and is the part of our psyche that we sometimes do not understand and do not accept.  If we do not integrate it we tend to compartmentalize it and life separate lives, conflicted.  If we have not integrated and embraced our shadow as we age, this can cause great conflict in our lives.  The contrasexual side of our psyche is the bridge from the shadow to the ego.

Jung felt that the end of life falls to an internal focus and not an external focus.  This “interiority” of looking within, close relationships encompasses spiritual development and change to accept his existence.  In the realm of Sigmund Freud’s age of research, 156-1939, the psychodynamic theory, people did not live long enough to give importance to the study of aging, dementia, or the effects of aging.  Erik Erikson’s Stage Theory identifies Late Adulthood as over age 65, with the psychological challenge of ego integrity versus despair.  In this stage he observes that older adults must find integrity and contentment in their final years by accepting their life as it has been or they feel a sense of despair.  This is an opportunity to develop the quality of wisdom and accept mortality, and the meaning of life.  As Bernard Baruch stated, “I will never be an old man.  To me, old age is always fifteen years older than I am.”

Only three things are for certain: taxes, that there is a 100% mortality rate, and all men that live long enough will have prostate cancer.  We inherit “shortivity traits.”  Neurons die out as we age and can no longer run the show.  With age we lose the ability to ward off disease of all types.  Life expectancy has been increasing over the years.  In 1900 the life expectancy was about 48 years.  By 1990 it had increased to about 76 years. Today, we can expect to live well into our eighties.  Many conditions have contributed to this increased life expectancy including: a reduction in infant mortality through medical advances, improvements in living conditions and sanitation, technological advances in refrigeration, heating, air conditioning, and sewage systems that greatly reduce the incidence of cholera, improved health behaviors as in the reduction of smoking and alcohol consumption, and general living conditions and more healthy behaviors.