When Life Reviews of the Elderly Occur: Toward the Elucidation of the Mechanisms of Response and the Construction of a Theory of Techniques

2023 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 17K04424
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Section: 一般
• Research Field: Clinical psychology
• Research Institution: Kagawa University
• Principal Investigator: Hayashi Tomokazu 香川大学, 医学部, 教授 (70274743)
• Project Period (FY): 2017-04-01 – 2024-03-31
• Keywords: 高齢者 / ライフレビュー / 介護老人保健施設 / 奏功機序 / 面接技法論

Outline of Final Research Achievements

Five 50-minute life review interviews were conducted once a week with 10 elderly patients using a long-term care health facility. The results revealed a process in which the narrator reflects on his/her life and a life story is spun out based on the desire for mutual understanding between the narrator and listener. The presence of the listener had a significant influence on this process, indicating that the life review is a story generated and shared between the narrator and the listener. The interviewing technique is to examine the listener's sensitivity to the narrator's mental movements, and to examine these movements as "mutual fluctuations" that arise in response to the narrator's mental movements, thereby deepening the relationship between the narrator and the listener and their understanding of the narrator's mind. This is a good way to deepen the relationship between the narrator and listener, and to understand the narrator's mind.

Free Research Field

心理臨床学

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

高齢者のライフレビューは自我の統合性に資するものであり、抑うつ感を減じ、生活満足度を高め、家族や古い友人など他者との絆を結び直し、自己を受容し、人と心を通わせあったり、カタルシスが得られたり、人間関係を促進したり、心の平穏が得られたりするなど、高齢者のメンタルヘルスにおいて重要なセラピューティックな効果がもたらされる。ライフレビューの奏功機序と面接技法論について明らかにした本研究の成果は、高齢者に対してライフレビューを行おうとする心理臨床家をはじめ高齢者ケア専門職にとって有益な知見であり、効果的なライフレビューが提供されることは、高齢者の福祉に資するものである。