Psychotherapie im Alter

The author describes opportunities and risks of internal rehabilitation of handicapped older clients from the perspective of the double role as social worker and superior.

E. H. Erikson’s concept of ego integrity enables us to understand how older people reflect on their lives. It enables us to consider whether they are satisfied with their lives, taking into account both success and non-achievement. In Western...

Case-based supervision is an established quality assurance method in social work. This article analyses specific topics, dynamics and perspectives on ageing in supervision. Four social work supervision cases with older clients (age: 60–70 years)...

In Germany, a large proportion of care for people living with dementia is provided by family caregivers, also referred to as informal care. Informal caregiving is often associated with chronic stress and an increased risk of stress-related illnesses...

Traumatic life experiences can continue to have an impact into old age. Residents of retirement homes are a particularly vulnerable group who are exposed to additional stressors due to their need for care and multimorbidity. Dealing with traumatized...

Dementia is nowadays considered a family disease, as it affects not only the persons with dementia, but also their relatives. The onset of dementia often shifts a previously equal relationship into an imbalance. This shift, together with the...

Over the lifespan, resilient coping with challenging situations can catalyze the emergence of wisdom if certain resources are available. The COVID-19 pandemic represented a collectively stressful situation in which these resources were needed. This...

Drawing on my many years of experience as a pastor for the elderly and as a logotherapist, I show how a deep spiritual grounding and orientation toward meaning can help strengthen personal resilience in advanced age.

Using the example of the Second World War, this paper aims to show that earlier experiences of war in childhood and youth are still experienced as stressful decades later and are accompanied by rather difficult health and psychological sensitivities...

Helmut Kohl’s statement about the »flourishing landscapes« after reunification has attracted a lot of criticism and even ridicule. The author describes how reunification after 45 years of divergent development was a Herculean task for which...

The author reflects on the societal and personal turning points in her nearly 80 years of life, with the most significant being the events of 1961 with the construction of the Berlin Wall and 1989 with its fall. She perceives the current era, marked...

Based on a personal example, insecurities in one’s own selfand identity-regulation as well as national and international radicalizations are shown using concrete current references. The compensation of identity insecurities leads individually and...

Based on several courses of treatment the author describes internal and external conflicts of elder citizens of the former GDR in Western Germany. Those patients, aged between 60 and 85 years, have moved to Western Germany at different times....

The author describes how he was promoted and supported as a student who was compliant with the political system in the »actually existing socialism« in the former GDR during the 1980s and how he then got into conflict with the force of the system...

35 years after the fall of the Berlin Wall, memories of the time of upheaval are awakened, accompanied by initial euphoria, later scepticism and also uncertainty. In each case, this is combined with the necessary adaptation, in some cases more, in...

A high elderly (92 years old) author describes in her narrative the emotional response to reunification, the responsible handling of restituted property, the renovation process of a house from the Wilhelminian era, and her family involvement in...