ABSTRACT
Recent neuropsychological research and psychodynamic perspectives on aging, together with the growing percentage of high-functioning senior adults in populations throughout the Western world, have given rise to a new image of older people and challenged clinical psychologists to be adequately informed and skillful in assessing and treating them. With the increasing percentage of older adults in the population, the study of aging has become a major focus of attention in neuropsychological research. Older adults may undergo substantial changes in their cognitive functioning, as in people with dementia or mild cognitive impairment. In conjunction with innovations in neuropsychology, contemporary psychodynamic perspectives on aging have helped to modernize the image of older people by challenging entrenched stereotypes and false assumptions about the elderly. Advances in theory and research have gradually been establishing the personality assessment of senior adults as a specialty in clinical psychogerontology and a feature of evidence-based psychodynamic practice.
