Identity processes and perceptions of the life span in chronic mental patients

This study was an exploratory investigation of identity and life-span perceptions in a sample of thirty-seven chronic mental patients, ranging from twenty-three to sixty-four years of age, using the "life drawing," a projective technique. Age differences were found in the adaptation of identity to the life experiences associated with mental illness. Individuals less than thirty years old were more likely to adopt a "patient identity"; in contrast, the over-forty years-old adapted to their illness through denial. These differences held regardless of psychiatric diagnosis, suggesting a process of identity adaptation more general than is implied in mental disorder diagnostic systems.