The author reviews the role of grandparents in contemporary life with reference to graphic/narrative representations of ageing in art, children’s [fairy] tales, and societal family life. As analysts we study individual development in psycho-sexual stages with particular emphasis on early childhood, pre-oedipal and oedipal issues. Erikson writing on the life-cycle included eight stages to the age of 65, amending a ninth stage of old age shortly before death. From Freud onward psychoanalysis has focused on treating individuals in the first half of life. What of the second half of life and grandparents? What is their role in our understanding the relational dimensions of the psychoanalytic process? Now it is common for individuals to live productive lives well into their 80’s or 90’s and it is not unusual for patients to enter psychoanalysis in mature years. Psychoanalytic candidates are often middle-aged, while many practicing analysts work well past middle-age. Training analysts are the most senior of our analytic colleagues. As we and our patients age, our resilience and capacity to respond to conflict is influenced by the support of significant others and the strength of our body-ego. The author cites the reality of the grandparent-child relationship as a supportive cohesive structure in family and psychic life. The reciprocal of this relationship is the metaphor of the adult-child as caregiver to the elder parent/grand-parent. Historically, psychoanalytic theory prioritizes transference focused on parental figures, only later adding the critical notion of sibling transference. Now, as analysts, analytic patients, and analytic societies age, may we discuss the realities, conflicts, and transferences of later life? The author presents personal experience and clinical examples to illustrate this perspective.

Learning Objectives:

At the end of this presentation participants will be able to:

1. Review the importance and relevance of Erikson’s stages of development including the 9th stage.
2. Consider the role and impact of grandparents as real and transference figures in ego development.
3. Be aware of the extended family including grandparents in offering a regulating function for the child and adult in dealing with loss, grief, and acceptance of the ageing process.

Ronald Ruskin, MD, FRCP(C), Dip Psych

Ronald Ruskin, MD, FRCP(C), Dip Psych graduated in Medicine from Queen’s University and trained in Psychiatry at McGill. He completed psychoanalytic training at the Toronto Psychoanalytic Institute and is a supervising and training analyst. Working as a psychoanalyst and chronic care psychiatrist at hospitals in Montreal, Hamilton, and Toronto, Ron led a Day Program at Mount Sinai Hospital following patients with complex psychiatric disorders. Deeply interested in the interplay of Psychoanalysis and Art, Ron coordinated The Annual Day in Applied Psychoanalysis for many years. Ron organized a program for psychotherapy supervisors at U of T and published and co-edited a text on Psychotherapy Supervision [APA Press]; he has been a founding editor of Ars Medica, a journal of medical humanities, and co-edited a text based on medical humanities: Body and Soul (UTP Press), and published three novels. His clinical papers are focused on psychoanalysis, boundary issues, the impact of suicide, and the role of grandparents.