ABSTRACT
One of the major psychological tasks in life and particularly in old age is to make sense of death and dying (Moody, 1986). Erikson (1963) proposed that a person’s life can be subdivided into eight different stages or developmental tasks. In old age, people have to come to terms with their life and the “inalterability of the past” (Erikson, Erikson, & Kivnick, 1986, p. 56). If they are able to look back without any major regrets and are satisfied with the way they have lived and what they have accomplished, integrity can be achieved. The successful resolution of that last crisis, integrity versus despair, supposedly results in wisdom which, according to Erikson (1964), “is detached concern with life itself in the face of death itself” (p. 133). Wise elders are able to
maintain the integrity of experience while at the same time acknowledging the physical deterioration of the body and the nearing of death.
