Abstract
Although Erikson’s (1963) concepts of the life cycle have been accepted generally among social scientists, psychoanalysts have only lately begun to attend to issues of development beyond adolescence. As we noted, Gould (1978) and Levinson, Darrow, Klein, & Levinson (1978) present empirical data describing specific stages of complex adult growth and transition; Vaillant (1977) demonstrates an evolution and change in the ego mechanisms of defense in a 40-year longitudinal study of normal men; Pribram (1971) and others offer evidence that, structurally, the brain progresses and regresses in adulthood; and Jarvik, Eisdofer, & Blum (1973) reverse earlier notions of an inevitable decline in intellectual acuity with age, showing that with continued mental activity, intelligence can expand even into old age.
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Nemiroff, R.A., Colarusso, C.A. (1985). Adult Development and Psychoanalytic Diagnosis and Treatment. In: The Race Against Time. Critical Issues in Psychiatry. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4899-3481-9_4
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4899-3481-9_4
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