Paradise regained: how elderly people who are chronically mentally ill reinvent a social self

Throughout their lives, chronic mentally ill people go through a series of disruptive events and periods of suffering. In general, the literature suggests that people with long-standing mental illnesses are extremely vulnerable and cannot maintain themselves without assistance. When old age is added to this mix, the result is a heavy burden for both the patient and the caregiver. While the negative consequences, for both patient and caregiver, of suffering chronic illness during old age must not be ignored, neither should the positive periods in these people's lives. There are times when the mutual identification between cold and young yields vivid examples of the latter's ability to reconstitute a social self. In this paper I look at chronic illness in old age as a struggle on the part of the sufferer to reconcile her/his experiences of suffering in the light of approaching death. I attempt to show that the process of aging with a chronic mental illness involves not only decay and suffering, but also resilience and vitality.