Date of Award

4-24-1981

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelor of Arts

Department

Psychology

Abstract

The only way that an outsider can appreciate the inner turmoil of a confused older person in a nursing home is to imagine a short scene. Think of the lonely old woman who sits alone day after day in the same chair waiting for her husband to come pick her up so that she can go home. At first glance, nothing seems unusual, but in probing deeper into this woman's personality, one finds that her husband has been dead for fifteen years, and furthermore, she does not have any conception of where she is, what city she is in, or the approximate date, This woman is not an unusual case. There are many old people, just like her, who are habitually sitting in plastic chairs uniformly lined up down corridors of nursing homes. These people have little or minimal contact with reality and they are essentially waiting there to die.

Download

Included in

Psychology Commons

Share

COinS