Reminiscing Psychotherapy with Aging People

Reminiscing is the process of remembering one's past, either verbally or internally. Time and the individual's selective processes influence what it remembered and how the memories are evoked. Although reminiscing starts around age 10 and persists throughout life, when aging people reflect on the past the behavior often is regarded as a sign of increasing mental deterioration. Some older people avoid reflecting on the past to prevent being labeled "senile." However, some clinical investigators have found reminiscing beneficial. In 1963 Butler wrote that the elderly psychiatric patients he observed engaged spontaneously in reminiscing and what he termed the "life review." He assumed the life review to be a normal, developmental phenomenon triggered by the person's realization of impending personal death. Potential benefits included resolution of old conflicts, personality reorganization, and restoration of meaning in the individual's life. Studying reminiscenses of aging persons who came from various settings, clinical investigators examined Butler's original ideas and noted other findings. Descriptions of the memories of older people without psychiatric illness demonstrate that some reminiscing is simple story-telling and glorification of the past in addition to life review. However, most investigators believed that remembering the past helped aging people personally and socially. Relationships between the content of memories and present conflicts were explored, and individual and group therapeutic approaches with aging people were designed to encourage reminiscing. Reminiscence provides unique opportunities for clients and therapists to have positive growth experiences.