This book brings together a selection of classic psychoanalytical papers related to ageing, dying and death that have appeared in the renowned International Journal of Psychoanalysis (IJP). Two papers address the analysis of an elderly patient directly and bring the work and the challenges it brings vividly to life. Also explored are such issues as death and the midlife crisis, loneliness and the ageing process, ageing and psychopathology, fear of death, transference and countertransference issues, and the final stage of the dying process. 'The idea behind this monograph is to alert interested psychoanalysts, students and those working from an interdisciplinary standpoint to the possibility of a better understanding of the ageing process as well as a group of potential analysis that seem to exist in the shadow of our professional communications. 'Each stage of life has its own somatic and psychic normality as well as pathology.

Series Preface , Editor's Preface , Foreword , Death and the mid-life crisis , On loneliness and the ageing process , Comments on Dr Norman A. Cohen's paper: "On loneliness and the ageing process" , On ageing and psychopathology-discussion of Dr Norman A. Cohen's paper "On loneliness and the ageing process" , Fear of death-notes on the analysis of an old man , The analysis of an elderly patient , The life cycle as indicated by the nature of the transference in the psychoanalysis of the middle-aged and elderly , The older analysand: countertransference issues in psychoanalysis , The final stage of the dying process , On the generational cycle-an address*