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References
Butler, R.N., and Lewis, M.I.,Aging and Mental Health, 3rd ed. Columbus, Ohio, Charles E. Merrill Publishing Company, 1986, p. 71.
Theoretical background for these remarks may be found in Frankl, V.E.,Man's Search for Meaning, revised and updated. New York, Washington Square Press, 1984; Buber, M.,The Knowledge of Man: A Philosophy of the Interhuman. New York, Harper Torchbooks, 1965; and Yalom, I.D.,Existential Psychotherapy. New York, Basic Books, 1980. I should perhaps add that “recognition” is by no means a universally valid treatment goal. Nevertheless, it can be valid even with some psychotic patients.
This approach is endorsed by Butler and Lewis,op. cit., p. 193.
Pincus, A., “Reminiscence in Aging and Its Implications for Social Work Practice,”Social Work, July 1970, 47–53, puts a distinctly more favorable cast on reminiscence than Butler, R.N., “The Life Review.” In Neugarten, B.L., ed.,Middle Age and Aging. Chicago, University of Chicago Press, 1968, pp. 486–496.
What difference is there between the dispirited concentration camp inmate and the dispirited psychiatric patient? “Instead of taking the camp's difficulties as a test of their inner strength, they did not take their life seriously and despised it as something of no consequence.... Life for such people became meaningless.” Frankl,op. cit., p. 93.
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Weston, J.H. The spiritual dimension in psychosocial assessment: A case study. J Relig Health 30, 207–213 (1991). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00986398
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00986398