ABSTRACT
Death anxieties are common in old age and may be stirred up just by the realisation of daily advancing infirmity and its inevitable end. These anxieties are often denied and turn into a hidden fear of death. Because partners, brothers, sisters and friends become infirm or die, loneliness is bound to accompany age. But the elderly are also prone to a particularly painful state of mind with the loss of internal companions. Understanding the psychological tasks of old age allows the anxieties and difficulties of the old to be understood. Research studies have shown that psychotherapy is an effective treatment for the depressions which are so common in late life. The small army of people who appeared at the man's door because of the 'contracting out' policy of the local authority had been driven there by central government's views about the most ruthlessly efficient way of providing 'care'.
