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A Self‐Insured Free Policy for Geriatric Mental Health
Author(s) -
FRIEDMAN JACOB H.,
STRACHAN JOYCE
Publication year - 1972
Publication title -
journal of the american geriatrics society
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.992
H-Index - 232
eISSN - 1532-5415
pISSN - 0002-8614
DOI - 10.1111/j.1532-5415.1972.tb02146.x
Subject(s) - medicine , disappointment , mental illness , psychiatry , pessimism , mental health , mentally ill , geriatrics , incidence (geometry) , geriatric psychiatry , psychology , social psychology , philosophy , physics , optics , epistemology
ABSTRACT: The authors interviewed 100 psychogeriatric patients whom they knew well, and obtained their responses to 6 questions concerning what the patient would like to be doing in one year, five years, and ten years versus what he would expect to be doing in one year, five years, and ten years. These 100 cases were subdivided into: Group I, 22 patients who had psychiatric functional illnesses (no organic brain syndromes); Group II, 39 patients who had recovered from their functional illness; and Group III, 39 patients who responded both when ill and when recovered. As a control, 100 geriatric persons who had never been mentally ill were similarly interviewed (Group IV). Except for a negligible number of optimistic replies, chiefly in Group IV, the responses were consistently pessimistic. Apparently the elderly person can develop a “no expectations” mental attitude that protects against frustration and disappointment. This amounts to a premium‐free insurance policy for mental health and may be a reason why the incidence or prevalence of functional mental illness is no greater in the elderly than in the young.