ABSTRACT
Aging is itself a potential source of stress, particularly with respect to coping with changing family, social, and work-related circumstances over which the person has little or no control. Del Corno and Plotkin observe in this regard that aging is commonly experienced as a threat to one’s ability to exercise control. Normative senior adults who function adaptively are rarely likely to seek psychotherapy solely for the purpose of obtaining a new perspective on aging. As would be expected from their generally normative functioning, senior adults who do not show any adaptation difficulties may provide a normative Rorschach protocol with no prominent deviations. From the perspective of the vision of the mind, meaning in human experience is generated by the mutual, dialectical, and enriching tension between reality and fantasy. Clearly dichotomized phenomena such as reality and fantasy are thus not at odds with each other, but rather constitute an ongoing dialectical tension that fosters healthy personality functioning.
