Research on the psychological outcomes of reminiscence techniques has led to equivocal findings. The goal of this paper is to advance current theory guiding research on reminiscence by examining the implications of viewing reminiscence as a type of autobiographical memory. Butler's classic paper on reminiscence as ‘life review’ (1963) is examined, and revisions to this approach are proposed based on research and theory concerning autobiographical memory. Specifically, the process of reminiscence is delineated through a discussion of the partially reconstructive nature of autobiographical memory and the relation of memory to the self. These developments are then used to predict the types of psychological outcomes that can be expected to result from reminiscence, and the types of reminiscence techniques that can be expected to lead to the distinct outcomes of self-acceptance and self-change. Linking the literatures on reminiscence techniques and autobiographical memory also provides a catalyst for future theoretical and empirical work.

Many questions and contradictions pervade both the understanding of what has come to be known as ‘elder abuse and neglect’ and attempts to address it. Four major competing constructions reflecting four differing needs discourses can be discerned in legislation, programmes and services, and in the actions of individuals. In this paper these constructions are introduced, examined and situated, with reference to the social and historical antecedents that have contributed to the emergence of elder abuse and neglect as a social problem. The article considers how these constructions are manifest in public and private responses to elder abuse and neglect, through discussion of the Canadian experience of service delivery to older people in situations of mistreatment and neglect, in non-institutional settings. It is concluded that deeply embedded value conflicts in Canadian society and in its political economy, compound the problem of resolving issues of mistreatment through public policy.

While studies investigating factors associated with carer burden suggest that intellectual impairment and behavioural disturbance in the care recipient are more demanding for the carer than physical impairment, comparative research findings are equivocal. Family carers of people with a long-term illness or disability were identified through a survey of 26,000 households in Victoria, Australia. Focusing on carers of those aged over 50 years, three subsamples were selected: 186 carers of relatives with physical impairment only, 182 carers of those with diagnosed memory loss and 117 carers of those with intellectual impairment diagnosed as dementia. Carers of physically impaired relatives reported better health, greater life satisfaction, and less overload, negative affect, family conflict, anger and resentment than carers of those with intellectual impairment, whether labelled as dementia or not. Despite lower impairment levels in the care recipient, carers of those with undiagnosed memory loss reported more resentment about their caring role than carers of those with a diagnosed dementia. The effects on the carer of significantly greater impairment in the dementia care recipient group may be ameliorated by having a diagnosis, bringing with it the potential for increased understanding and tolerance. Fortunately, negative feelings predictive of a sense of burden are subject to a range of interventions: providing information to promote understanding; counselling to tackle negative feelings and family conflict; guidelines to deal with behaviour problems and physical aspects of caring; and community services to reduce overload.

While the substantial literature on lay health beliefs gives some consideration to older people's conceptions of health and illness, it is material which has yet to be examined from the perspective of postmodern theory. This article, therefore, critically examines the value of using ideas from postmodernism in such a context and focuses on data obtained from a series of in-depth interviews with a sample of fifteen older people. During the interviews they were asked to talk about themselves in relation to issues which included health, illness, disease, death and dying. What they said revealed that, while medicine remained a location of power and knowledge, many of their health beliefs were nonetheless at odds with conventional medicine and indeed with the traditionally passive role of the NHS patient. In conclusion, we suggest that, whilst not always in an explicit or conscious sense, interviewees were discovering self-empowering strategies by questioning the meta-narratives through which the social world is fabricated.

We reflect upon the practices of two projects working with older people – one involving health promotion and the other arts – in terms of the discourses deployed in their work. The material discussed is drawn from evaluations which, through their use of feminist and critical methodologies, were committed to revealing and challenging the layers of inequality often present in practice with older people. The familiar notions of friendship and conversation are shown to be useful in conceptualising the work of these projects. It is argued that the discourses within which these ideas are embedded offer the basis of progressive practice with older people even in routine settings such as housing, social care, recreation and social work. These concepts offer the possibility of thinking of older people as active subjects within, rather than passive objects of, practice and of challenging inequalities through reframing more functional discourses.

This paper questions assumptions about reminiscence and looks at definitions of it. Functions of different types of reminiscence are examined and distinctions are drawn between these and autobiographical memories. Methodologies of eliciting reminiscences are critically considered. Finally, types and amounts of reminiscence are related to life style and age group.

A. Sagner. 1998. The 1944 Pension Laws Amendment Bill: old-age security policy in South Africa in historical perspective, ca. 1920–1960. Southern African Journal of Gerontology7, 1, 10–14.

S. van der Berg. 1998. Ageing, public finance and social security in South Africa. Southern African Journal of Gerontology7, 1, 3–9.

The latest issue of Southern African Journal of Gerontology traces the origins of the South African social pensions system and addresses contemporary issues. In her editorial, Monica Ferreira (1998) notes that South Africa is one of only two countries in Africa that operates a social old-age system. Although the value of the South African social pension system is low in terms of real income (R490 in July 1998 – approximately US$100), the pension is generous in comparison with other developing countries. The take-up rate of the pension is virtually 90 per cent in the case of Africans, who historically were the most disadvantaged group under apartheid.

Husbands and wives constitute a large proportion of carers of those older people suffering dementia. Many older people with dementia have had a long history of personal relationships, often having lived with the same partner for most of their lives. Following the life course approach, this study explores the ways in which a couple's marital experiences impinge upon the challenges faced when a spouse develops dementia in late life and is cared for by his or her partner. I start by surveying the relevant literature. The second section outlines a study of nine couples and includes brief case vignettes. In the third section I seek to test out hypotheses extrapolated from the material, with the theme of how perceptions of the caring situation are related to perceptions of the pre-morbid marital relationship, drawing heavily upon the case material. No single discussion is exhaustive, as any of these hypotheses are worthy of intensive study in their own right. I conclude with a summary of the findings and a reflection on how professionals might put these findings into practice.

L. B. Cebik, Glenn C. Graber and Frank H. Marsh (eds) Advances in Bioethics: Volume 1: Violence, Neglect and the Elderly. JAI Press Inc., Greenwich, Conn. 1996, 240 pp. £62.50 Hbk ISBN 0-7623-0096-5.

This book appears to be the first volume of a series, although it is not clear what additional volumes will follow. The price alone suggests that it is aimed at academic libraries, although serious researchers into elder mistreatment may decide that it is a necessary addition to a personal library as a book of reference.

The Preface explains the origin of this series on Advances in Bioethics: ‘The magnitude of violence in the United States has become an increasingly grim reality for many Americans’. Walker and Maltby (1997), in their presentation of European research on ageing, recently drew attention to the sense of fear of walking out at night that older people have in all the member states of the European Union. The same appears to be true in the USA as well. The preface catalogues figures for 1992: 207,000 rapes, over 20,000 murders and 690,000 robberies. This has led the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to focus attention on violence and health, seeking to understand violence-related behaviour and its consequences. In 1993, the NIH set up the Panel of NIH Research on Antisocial, Aggressive and Violence-related Behaviours and their Consequences. The Panel included experts on ethics, criminal justice, medicine, behavioural and biological research, public health, epidemiology, anthropology, nursing, sociology, psychology and psychiatry. The Panel's purpose was to ‘evaluate the NIH research portfolio in terms of its relevance, adequacy and responsiveness to social and ethical concerns.’ It has been necessary to give this background in order that the book may be seen in context.

Alison J. Hirschel, 1996. Setting the stage: the advocates' struggle to address neglect in Philadelphia nursing homes. Journal of Elder Abuse and Neglect, 8, 3, 5–20.

Raymond Jack and Stephen Mosley, 1997. The client group preferences of Diploma in Social Work students. British Journal of Social Work, 27, 2, 893–912.

Ruth Landau, 1997. Ethical judgement and decision making orientation in social work. Issues in Social Work Education, 17, 2, 66–81.

The abuse of older people has seized the imagination of social workers, and conferences or training on the subject are frequently well subscribed. For many, the concept appears to have brought together aspects of their concerns about older people, while perhaps helping to justify their professional or academic interest. The reality of abuse remains generally unreported so any material derived from ‘real’ events that is well documented and carefully analysed is likely to be thought-provoking and influential.

The interconnections between religion and old age are complex; the more so given that the concept of age itself has – for a large part of human history – been determined by religious understandings of life. In traditional societies, religion played a crucial part in structuring the transitions between one stage of the life and the next and in defining maturity and fulfilment. And up to a point it still does: in Western societies at the turn of the millennium the association of religious rituals with key moments in the life course – birth, adolescence, marriage and above all death – remains widespread. Such interconnections change over time, however; they also vary from place to place.

This paper is concerned with the emergence of consumerism as a dominant theme in the culture surrounding the organisation and provision of welfare in contemporary societies. In it we address the dilemmas produced by a consumerist discourse for older people's healthcare, dilemmas which may be seen as the conflicting representations of third age and fourth age reality. We begin by reviewing the appearance of consumerism in the recent history of the British healthcare system, relating it to the various reforms of healthcare over the last two decades and the more general development of consumerism as a cultural phenomenon of the post World War II era. The emergence of consumer culture, we argue, is both a central theme in post-modernist discourse and a key element in the political economy of the New Right. After examining criticisms of post-modernist representational politics, the limitations of consumerism and the privileged position given to choice and agency within consumerist society, we consider the relevance of such critical perspectives in judging the significance of the user/consumer movement in the lives of retired people.

My previous report on incomes in retirement (Hutton 1996) was written in June 1996. Almost a year later, the UK election in May 1997 led to a change in government and, in the following November, to a review of pension provision. The results of this review will be announced in a Green Paper due in the Autumn 1998. Prior to the election the political parties made statements and election pledges on pensions, so that it has been a time of some clarity of position but also, until the results of the review are published, of considerable uncertainty. The areas for debate, however, have been well set out.

Two years ago I concluded:

It will be interesting…to see what progress or otherwise has occurred in ensuring an adequate income in retirement, more equal provision for men and women, in the movement towards funded pensions, in the role of the state pension, and in the progress of the minimum pension guarantee. (Hutton 1996: 785)

In this report I will first discuss where the debate on these issues has gone. Policy developments will then be set out, and finally I will identify questions to be asked in evaluating the pensions' review when it is published.