Reminiscence Group Therapy with Psychotic Geriatric Inpatients

Abstract

Two different approaches to group therapy with elderly psychotic inpatients are described, and contrasted. It is concluded that a reminiscence format leads to the earlier establishment of group cohesiveness and interaction than a traditional format. Reasons for this are felt to include the ego-syntonic nature of reminiscence for older people, and the psychotherapeutic aspects of the life review. Implications for treatment approaches to this patient population, and for future reseach are explored.