ABSTRACT
Institutional care for elderly persons is often custodial rather than therapeutic. The development of interventions that are meaningful to residents who face profound physical and social losses is a formidable challenge. A number of clinicians report that using reminiscence in work with elderly, institutionalized persons resulted in positive outcomes [1–5]. For example, reminiscence has been found to be positively related to freedom from depression [6–9]; improvements in cognitive functioning [10]; psychological well-being [11, 12]; life satisfaction [6, 11]; and ego integrity [13].
