Life and Death: Our Relationship with Ageing, Dementia, and Other Fates of Time

Life and Death considers ageing and mortality from a psychoanalytic perspective and from the point of view of the individual, the couple, and the family. Andrew Balfour’s approach focuses on understanding the challenges of late life and what might help us to continue to live our lives, and inhabit our relationships, as creatively as possible. The book grounds a psychoanalytic approach to understanding later life as a key point of developmental challenge for us all, through closely written accounts of the experiences of older people, as well as wider social-contextual issues. It locates itself at the interface of internal and external realities, exploring the lived experience of some of the most difficult things we can face in old age, such as dementia and other age-related illnesses and losses. Life and Death will be of interest to psychoanalysts, psychotherapists, counsellors, and psychologists in practice and in training. It will also appeal to the general reader interested in ageing and the challenges of late life.