ABSTRACT
It has been almost thirty years since Butler published his first article on the life review [1]. Since then the idea that nearly all people, especially older persons, review their lives in the face of death has become firmly entrenched in both the literature and the practice of gerontology. Numerous articles (including subsequent ones by Butler himself) present expanded discussions of the nature of the life review, its various reforms, its therapeutic value, and so on. The literature also consists of research reports wherein life review is a structured intervention that seeks to bring about changes on various dependent measures such as life satisfaction, ego integrity, and self-concept. That this concept/theory has achieved a certain status in the field is further underscored by an entire issue of Journal of Gerontological Social Work being devoted to the life review (1988).
