Psychology: Life Review Analysis - Ego Integrity and Clinical Practice

This psychology essay presents a life review analysis conducted with an 83-year-old male diagnosed with Alzheimer’s and PTSD, focusing on the goals, benefits, and differences between life review and ordinary remembering. It analyzes the interviewee's ego integrity, reflecting on personal experiences during the process, potential impacts on clinical practice, and projecting a legacy of empathetic care for the elderly. The essay references gerontological theories, emphasizing the therapeutic benefits of life review in addressing traumatic memories and promoting social bonding, particularly for individuals in assisted living facilities. It highlights the use of mementos and artifacts to enhance memory recollection and the importance of understanding the psychological impact of past experiences to improve the client's mental and emotional well-being. The analysis reveals the client's unresolved despair related to his discharge from the army and its current impact on his mental health, underscoring the significance of addressing past traumas in clinical practice.

Running head: LIFE REVIEW ANALYSIS
Psychology
-Life Review Analysis
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

1LIFE REVIEW ANALYSIS
Contents
Introduction to the older adult:...................................................................................................2
Analysis of the Life Review Interview:.....................................................................................2
-Descriptions of the goals and benefits of life review............................................................2
-Difference between life review and ordinary remembering.................................................3
-Analysis of ego integrity of the interviewee.........................................................................4
Reflections..................................................................................................................................4
-Personal experience of the process.......................................................................................4
-Potential impact on clinical practice.....................................................................................5
-Projection of my own legacy................................................................................................5
References:.................................................................................................................................6

2LIFE REVIEW ANALYSIS
Introduction to the older adult:
The Life Review interview was conducted with an older male adult, Mr. X (name
withheld for privacy reasons), aged 83 years diagnosed with advanced stage of Alzheimer’s
disease as well as post traumatic stress disorder. Mr. X is a retired army veteran and has
served for more than 30 years before being honorably discharged due to his deteriorating
mental health after being diagnosed with progressing paranoid schizoid symptoms. He
currently lives in a residential care and has a brother who visits him every week.
Mr. X has deep seated resentments of being discharged from the army that lead to a
loss of his livelihood and restricted his independence. With a limited support from the
government, Mr. X also have to depend on his brother for financial support from time to time
to support his ongoing treatment, which is affecting his mental health even more. He have
shown a strong desire to leave the residential care home he is living in and travel across the
world to find peace and tranquility.
The study aims to analyze the life review interview, outlining the intended goals and
benefits of the interview, relations to relevant theories and perspectives of gerontological
studies, identifying how it differs from ordinary remembering and analyzing the ego integrity
of the interviewee (Chan et al., 2016).
Analysis of the Life Review Interview:
-Descriptions of the goals and benefits of life review
The process of life review provides individuals a chance to review their own past,
virtually travelling back in time and reliving the previous experiences and identify key
insights from those experiences that can help individuals to cope up with the present (Latorre
et akl., 2015).

3LIFE REVIEW ANALYSIS
The aim of the process is to help people achieve a sense of empowerment and peace
over their lives and provide them closures on incidents that have significant emotional
impacts on them. The strategy also aims to put a perspective on their life experiences through
retrospection and reveals memories that are emotionally important to the client (Hijazi et al.,
2016). The approach can use several types of mementos and artifacts such as letters, photos,
music and family trees to bring back old memories and enhance the sessions on life review
(Woods et al., 2018).
According to Gerontological Theories of aged care, these therapy sessions can help
individuals to deal with difficult and traumatic memories and unresolved issues in a better
way and manage the feelings more effectively (Buigues et al., 2015). Launay (2015) also
suggested that this strategy can also help to promote social bonding especially among
individuals who are more isolated socially and can be used for residents living in assisted
living facilities. The sessions can therefore be therapeutic, informational as well as
educational for the clients and can benefit people suffering from dementia, depression, and
anxiety and help terminal patients to lead a better quality of life (Kleijn et al., 2018).
-Difference between life review and ordinary remembering
The process of Life Review is more detailed compared to ordinary remembering and
the process not only involves remembering a memory but also discussing the importance and
significance of the memory (Buigues et al., 2015). Kleijn et al. (2018) pointed out that
discussing the significance of a memory can help to understand how it impacts the
psychology of the client and thus help them to overcome emotional stressors associated with
the memory. The process also utilizes artifacts and mementos associated with particular
memories such as photos, music, letters or family trees to enhance the recollection of the
memory through an audiovisual stimulus (Latorre et al., 2015). According to Thronicke et al.

4LIFE REVIEW ANALYSIS
(2018), using an audiovisual input can support better formation and retrieval of memory and
thus is an effective strategy to help the client to remember certain memories from their past
experiences. Moreover, the process also involves a discourse on the significance of the
memory that offers a scope to the client to assess the memory upon retrospection and
understand why and how it affects them psychologically (Stubbs, 2018). Such aspects are not
a part of the ordinary process of remembering that includes only the recollection of the past
experiences (Nilakantan et al., 2017).
-Analysis of ego integrity of the interviewee
The term Ego Integrity refers to a stage of psychosocial development where an
individual is able to show a ‘post narcissistic love’ for their own egos in the form of
experiences that exhibits a sense of spirituality and transcendence regardless of its costs
(Westerhof et al., 2017).
In the given scenario, the client has completely come in terms to the fact that he is
suffering from an end state condition and has shown a reduced interest to continue with his
treatment and instead wants to go for one last tour across the world. The patient however
feels deeply unsettled and depressed about his previous experiences about his discharge from
the Army and has exhibited an interest of ‘getting even’ with the people who did him wrong
and put him in his current situation. This shows that the client still experiences some form of
despair from his past experience that impacts his mental health currently (Kleijn et al., 2016).
Reflections
-Personal experience of the process
The process of the Life Review helped me understand fully how unresolved past life
experiences can cause significant emotional trauma among people and can therefore

5LIFE REVIEW ANALYSIS
influence their quality of life and mental health. I was also able to learn strategies that can
support better retrieval of old memories to support the success of the process.
-Potential impact on clinical practice
Learning about the life review process can help me to support the health and
wellbeing of the elderly residents in care homes more effectively, supporting them to come in
terms and get closures from past traumatic experiences and therefore help them to improve
their emotional and mental wellbeing. As a result, I would be able to help the clients to
remember important memories and their significances with them and help them to lead a
better quality of life. I strongly believe that such knowledge can help me to achieve better
professional competency and efficiency.
-Projection of my own legacy
In my professional work, I would like to develop my legacy as an empathetic and
caring individual who actively works to support the wellbeing of the elderly people and helps
people to achieve closure from past traumatic memories.

6LIFE REVIEW ANALYSIS
References:
Buigues, C., Padilla-Sánchez, C., Garrido, J. F., Navarro-Martínez, R., Ruiz-Ros, V., &
Cauli, O. (2015). The relationship between depression and frailty syndrome: a
systematic review. Aging & mental health, 19(9), 762-772.
Chan, K. Y., Lau, V. W. K., Cheung, K. C., Chang, R. S. K., & Chan, M. L. (2016).
Reduction of psycho-spiritual distress of an elderly with advanced congestive heart
failure by life review interview in a palliative care day center. SAGE Open Medical
Case Reports, 4, 2050313X16665998.
Hijazi, O., Munro, S., Zerhusen, B., & Effenberger, M. (2016). Review of life cycle
assessment for biogas production in Europe. Renewable and Sustainable Energy
Reviews, 54, 1291-1300.
Kleijn, G., Lissenberg-Witte, B. I., Bohlmeijer, E. T., Steunenberg, B., Knipscheer-Kuijpers,
K., Willemsen, V., ... & van der Vorst, M. (2018). The efficacy of Life Review
Therapy combined with Memory Specificity Training (LRT-MST) targeting cancer
patients in palliative care: A randomized controlled trial. PloS one, 13(5), e0197277.
Kleijn, G., Post, L., Witte, B. I., Bohlmeijer, E. T., Westerhof, G. J., Cuijpers, P., &
Verdonck-de Leeuw, I. M. (2016). Psychometric characteristics of a patient reported
outcome measure on ego-integrity and despair among cancer patients. PloS one,
11(5), e0156003.
Latorre, J. M., Serrano, J. P., Ricarte, J., Bonete, B., Ros, L., & Sitges, E. (2015). Life review
based on remembering specific positive events in active aging. Journal of aging and
health, 27(1), 140-157.

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Launay, J. (2015). Music as a technology for social bonding: Comment on “Music, empathy,
and cultural understanding” by E. Clarke et al. Physics of life reviews, 15, 94.
Nilakantan, A. S., Bridge, D. J., Gagnon, E. P., VanHaerents, S. A., & Voss, J. L. (2017).
Stimulation of the posterior cortical-hippocampal network enhances precision of
memory recollection. Current Biology, 27(3), 465-470.
Stubbs, R. M. (2018). A review of attachment theory and internal working models as relevant
to music therapy with children hospitalized for life threatening illness. The Arts in
Psychotherapy, 57, 72-79.
Thronicke, A., Kröz, M., Merkle, A., Matthes, H., Herbstreit, C., & Schad, F. (2018).
Psychosocial, Cognitive, and Physical Impact of Elaborate Consultations and Life
Review in Female Patients with Non-Metastasized Breast Cancer. Complementary
medicine research, 25.
Westerhof, G. J., Bohlmeijer, E. T., & McAdams, D. P. (2017). The relation of ego integrity
and despair to personality traits and mental health. The Journals of Gerontology:
Series B, 72(3), 400-407.
Woods, B., O'Philbin, L., Farrell, E. M., Spector, A. E., & Orrell, M. (2018). Reminiscence
therapy for dementia. Cochrane database of systematic reviews, (3).

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