ABSTRACT
Dislocation is part of the personal history of psychoanalysis—diaspora the experience of many of the first generation of analysts. This chapter discusses the internal experience of dislocation consequent upon ageing itself—where psychically, if not geographically, one might find oneself in a foreign land. At a social level, our notion of history as the story of the linear march of progress can carry with it the attribution that earlier generations were somehow not fully human like us—not so evolved. It is difficult for us to know about old age and the end of life, so we tend to keep it out of view, another country, where we have difficulty imagining ourselves dwelling. Old age is excluded from ordinary currency, and many everyday phrases convey this, the "digital divide", the "generation gap". A newspaper editorial put it like this: The average Briton dies in semi-darkness, is cremated behind drawn curtains, and has no public memorial.
