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ABSTRACT
This is an essay about the author’s personal journey to finding wisdom as she is growing old. Although she has the good fortune of being in good health and having longevity in her family, she knows that tomorrow is promised to no one, and she has lived most of her life. After exploring how living is changing for her as she approaches seventy-five, she goes on to memorialize her parents and claim the valuable things she internalized from them. She shows how she has become more patient and flexible in her clinical work as time has gone on, and in writing her essay, realizes that she is approaching retirement, a true fact, she says. Writing has helped her bring coherence to her life story, to feel happy with her life and feel like a wise woman who is “free to wear purple”.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.
Notes
1 Institutes and the American Psychoanalytic Association have versions of Patient/Colleague Assistance Committees to which concerned colleagues can report impaired analysts, a beginning.
2 I’ve written elsewhere (Levin, Citation2007) about my later-in-life project of doing analytic training, and how that turned out.
Additional information
Notes on contributors
Carol B. Levin
Carol B. Levin, M.D., is Associate Editor, Psychoanalytic Inquiry and Psychoanalysis, Self & Context; Faculty and Member, Michigan Psychoanalytic Institute and Society; and Training Analyst, Michigan Council for Psychoanalysis and Psychotherapy.