Survivors of a longitudinal study over the age of 80 years were asked whether they saw their lives in terms of story and whether they agreed with our assessment of its present major themes. Two-thirds of the initial sample of 43 people affirmed that their life story was a coherent one in which past and present were connected. Relationships, particularly within the family, were the major source of linkage. One-quarter of the sample, predominantly female members, perceived neither story nor connections but they were not necessarily dissatisfied with their present lives. Detailed case studies were subsequently composed on the identity processes shown by each person, and their conclusions discussed with the 28 remaining participants two to three years later. The most evident continuing life theme for both men and women was one oriented to the family. Maintenance of independence and own home were also emphasised. The application of McAdams' story model of identity is discussed in relationship to two cases. Implications for research and practice are discussed, including opportunities for older people to construct and present the story of their lives to others.

This paper critically assesses the portrayal of late life development in psychoanalysis and the wider psychodynamic tradition. Attention is drawn to the importance of this tradition both as a vehicle for personal change and as a cultural phenomenon in its own right. An analysis of historical trends indicates successive phases of accommodation to the practice of psychotherapy with mature adults, moving from a view that older people made unsuitable analysands to one that outlined the possibility of such work, and finally to a rejection of traditional Freudian frameworks as in themselves inappropriate. Two themes, the explanation of adult development in terms of formative childhood experience and a focus on transferential relationships across generations, are examined in greater detail. It is concluded that whilst psychoanalytic thinking can usefully draw on the age-sensitised perspective of social gerontology, much can also be learned about the experience of ageing through the use of psychodynamic concepts.

In this paper it is argued that the problem of formulating a comprehensive theory of successful ageing – and thereby of finding good criteria for success – may be attributed to the lack of a suitable multidisciplinary framework that meets at least three basic theoretical requirements. These requirements are explicated, and some existing theories and approaches of successful ageing are discussed in the light of these requirements. An alternative theoretical framework is presented which can accommodate a number of existing insights, and which is used as the basis of a new theory of successful ageing, including theory-guided criteria for success.

While the substantial literature on lay health beliefs gives some consideration to older people's conceptions of health and illness, it is material which has yet to be examined from the perspective of postmodern theory. This article, therefore, critically examines the value of using ideas from postmodernism in such a context and focuses on data obtained from a series of in-depth interviews with a sample of fifteen older people. During the interviews they were asked to talk about themselves in relation to issues which included health, illness, disease, death and dying. What they said revealed that, while medicine remained a location of power and knowledge, many of their health beliefs were nonetheless at odds with conventional medicine and indeed with the traditionally passive role of the NHS patient. In conclusion, we suggest that, whilst not always in an explicit or conscious sense, interviewees were discovering self-empowering strategies by questioning the meta-narratives through which the social world is fabricated.

L. B. Cebik, Glenn C. Graber and Frank H. Marsh (eds) Advances in Bioethics: Volume 1: Violence, Neglect and the Elderly. JAI Press Inc., Greenwich, Conn. 1996, 240 pp. £62.50 Hbk ISBN 0-7623-0096-5.

This book appears to be the first volume of a series, although it is not clear what additional volumes will follow. The price alone suggests that it is aimed at academic libraries, although serious researchers into elder mistreatment may decide that it is a necessary addition to a personal library as a book of reference.

The Preface explains the origin of this series on Advances in Bioethics: ‘The magnitude of violence in the United States has become an increasingly grim reality for many Americans’. Walker and Maltby (1997), in their presentation of European research on ageing, recently drew attention to the sense of fear of walking out at night that older people have in all the member states of the European Union. The same appears to be true in the USA as well. The preface catalogues figures for 1992: 207,000 rapes, over 20,000 murders and 690,000 robberies. This has led the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to focus attention on violence and health, seeking to understand violence-related behaviour and its consequences. In 1993, the NIH set up the Panel of NIH Research on Antisocial, Aggressive and Violence-related Behaviours and their Consequences. The Panel included experts on ethics, criminal justice, medicine, behavioural and biological research, public health, epidemiology, anthropology, nursing, sociology, psychology and psychiatry. The Panel's purpose was to ‘evaluate the NIH research portfolio in terms of its relevance, adequacy and responsiveness to social and ethical concerns.’ It has been necessary to give this background in order that the book may be seen in context.