ABSTRACT
The psychoanalytic frame was developed to provide containment for a complex relationship with different levels of meaning. Disruptions to the frame have significant impact and the imposition of an ending cuts right into the ‘as if’ relationship as well as the more ‘real’ attachment relationship. Attachment behaviour is most obviously triggered by separation. S. Biggs suggests that the Freudian legacy which privileges the importance of childhood has contributed to a negative discourse about old age and has meant that psychoanalysis has aligned itself with other ageist beliefs in our culture. Contributors were all experienced in using free association to access deeper levels of the self and they took the opportunity to tune into their own unconscious process. This happened to differing degrees in different interviews, but the pattern that emerged was that of a quasi-supervisory meeting. The chapter also presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in this book.
