ABSTRACT
The task of bringing about change in any family seeking therapy is substantial. But when an aging family comes to therapy, the process of change becomes enormously more complex. Besides being faced with presenting problems of the older person, symptomatic behavior of the family, personality conflicts, and dysfunctional transactions, the therapist and aging family must also deal with the variety of developmental concerns spanning three, four, and perhaps five generations. Family-of-origin issues, which may only surface slightly in a two-generation family, can become dominant themes as the intergenerational aging family plays out these conflicts in front of the therapist. Death, grief, reflection, despair, frustration, anxiety, physical deterioration, years of unresolved family conflict—all are present in force with an aging family in therapy. In short, aging families present the therapist with a much more complex system than do other families. It is not only that the problems of aging might be tougher, but the changes that the family needs to implement must be more far-reaching, affecting several more dimensions of the system.
