Life Review Therapy

Reminiscence in the aged is frequently viewed as pathological-a wish to escape from the present, a loss of recent memory, or useless and repetitive rambling. However, talking about the events of one's life may be indicative of just the opposite--a healthy activity with adaptive value for coping with the final stages of life. According to Erik Erikson, the nearness of death precipitates a crisis during which a person evaluates his/her accomplishments and failures in order to find meaning in life. If he/she does this successfully, "integrity" rather than "despair" can be achieved. It is to this end that the technique of life review therapy was developed. To illustrate this therapy, this paper includes a case presentation of a 73-year-old man.