ABSTRACT
The experience of old age and ageing is quite variable because it is affected by multiple factors belonging to the sociocultural, medical, and psychological domains. It is important to acknowledge that in countries where health and economic conditions are very low, adolescence and old age have a very brief span. The process of ageing activates anxieties about losses and death, and some of these anxieties, when there are developmental difficulties or failures, can feel overwhelming. Trauma has been known throughout the history of humankind. The theoretical and technical psychoanalytic frame does not change when working with older patients. It is important for the analyst not to lose his psychoanalytic balance when the pressure to do so can be considerable, especially when one is dealing with trauma and the pressure to act out or be sympathetic instead of analyse is considerable.
