The mechanisms of permanence time: support for a psychodynamic hypothesis of psychological aging.

Abstract

We often observe in advanced age a degree of obsessionalization in behavior, attitudes, and interests. This phenomenon, seemingly the expression of unconscious defense mechanisms, may be explained in various ways: as a consequence of losses related to aging; as regression in the service of the self; as an expression of the "death instinct." Another level of reflection is concerned with the influence of the perception of time. Confronted by the curtailing of one's expectation of life, the aged person may unconsciously yearn for some kind of permanence, designed to conjure away the effect of passing time. We find such a process underlying rigidity, collecting, or hypochondria, which may be regarded as "mechanisms of permanence." These strategies, although constituting for the aged person a defense intended, in fantasy, to preserve life, in reality constitute a trap that excludes life.