Ageing, Illness, and Death

Organised by:

Tavistock Relationships

Description

Ageing, Illness, and Death:
Exploring Unwelcome Realities through a Psychoanalytic Lens

With Salman Akhtar, Maxine Anderson & Andrew Balfour

Every one of us is ageing. In the psychoanalytic profession, where experience is deeply valued and retirement often delayed or optional, we tend to occupy a unique position in relation to ageing. Yet despite our long training and professional longevity, we have invested surprisingly little in the developmental questions of later life. We have been reluctant to face the psychic realities of ageing, loss, physical decline, dementia, and ultimately, death. This conference invites us to look directly at these issues, both in ourselves and our patients, and to deepen our psychoanalytic understanding of the ageing process.

Through a series of talks and discussions, we will examine the evolving nature of psychic life across midlife, early old age, and later years. Salman Akhtar will open with a developmental framework, offering insight into the shifting psychic tasks of later life, from depletion to the potential for transcendence. Andrew Balfour will explore how we meet the challenges of ageing and dementia, and how we might remain alive to ourselves and our relationships. Maxine Anderson offers a moving clinical perspective on working psychoanalytically with patients facing cognitive decline. The conference concludes with a reflective conversation among the speakers and participants, addressing the profound complexities of growing old.

Bringing together distinguished psychoanalysts from both sides of the Atlantic, this event offers a rare opportunity to reflect on the psychic tasks of ageing not just theoretically, but also clinically and personally. Each speaker brings a distinct lens — developmental, relational, and experiential — to illuminate how we might better accompany our patients and ourselves through the final stages of life.

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