The two-way street: aspects of regression in psychotherapy with aging patients

In the history of psychotherapy, regression has been generally regarded as a pathologic defense and as a resistance to treatment, and only occasionally as a productive element of the treatment process. Work with aging patients offers a useful vantage point for understanding this latter function, as the extended longitudinal perspective helps clarify the patterns of regressive phenomena. Three such therapies are presented, with particular focus on regressions in content and transference. The classical view of regression as a pathologic process fails to explain the observations adequately. The process is more fully understood when the curative potential of regression is appreciated. Flowing spontaneously from patients in the wake of empathic interventions by the therapist, it enables patients to re-experience earlier attitudes and perceptions. Interpreting these earlier positions furthers therapeutic growth. Patients can also use regression outside the context of therapy to expand their repertoire of adaptive skills.